[cranks]

Originally Posted by Columbine

Yes, I'm aware, I was just pointing out how the media in ~english~ is deliberately using the word "dolphin" when we would normally use "whale". This is probably what's particularly inflaming the protests from a lot of foreigners.

I should have known better. But thanks for giving me the chance to elaborate

Originally Posted by Columbine

Again, I think there's been some confusion. The hunts in 岩手 were highlighted a year or two ago, so a number of people I've mentioned Taichi to have automatically assumed it was of the kind and scale of Iwate, or indeed, actually Iwate. Dall's Porpoise probably wouldn't incite a protest as much as other species as they aren't threatened and don't have any real conservation status yet. I think I need to steel myself and actually watch The Cove...

I see. And I feel the confusion is rather deliberated if it was caused by The Cove. I disagree that porpoise wouldn't incite a protest because they are not threatened though. They don't incite a protest because they are not as cute. 6000 porpoises are killed in the US annually by fishing net, some are species that is endangered. Yet you don't see nearly as many protests against it as there are to the Japanese. There are only 8000 bowhead whales worldwide, and the US is hunting about 25-40 of them annually. Again. Not so many protests. Bottlenose dolphin on the other hand, is not endangered at all, but killing of this species caused people to rise hell as we witnessed with The Cove.

Originally Posted by Columbine

I don't think simply paying up for the cost of the meat year-in year-out is a solution though, even if it is a tiny part of the budget.

I'm definitely not suggesting they pay up for the cost. Not permanently anyway. But $100,000 is a tiny tiny market, it should be, or should HAVE been, really easy to create an alternative for that.

Originally Posted by Columbine

It might still be seen as foreigners muscling in on tradition,

I don't think these guys care about exactly how they hunt whales. They would rather hunt minkes than dolphins anyway. They adopted a newer method that is supposed to kill dolphins quickly in 2000 too. Again, they have families to support. Dolphins may not have means to defend themselves, but nor do cows, chickens or pigs. They aren't any different from farmers in the US in that sense. I feel something is amiss when people from Hollywood who earn millions come all the way to Japan and bash these poor fishermen who earn 1/100th of what they do.

Originally Posted by Columbine

but it would be an entirely more diplomatic way to handle it than simple aggression tactics and smear campaigns. It's also a way that movements within Japan could more easily work with, or ideally, spearhead.

Very true. If people try to understand each other a bit more…

Really, you don't find many Japanese people who actually want to eat whale. But it is an important and fundamental Japanese cultural value that all life forms are equal in principle. Many westerners are missing that point. Japanese people take smear campaigns more seriously too.