The whaling issue has got me thinking about a few things.
First, you have Anette King flip flopping on how National are handling this. On ZB yesterday she agreed that a new approach was needed, then on Sunrise this morning she said that the way Labour was handling for the past nine years was the way to go (because that worked a treat right?). Then you have the Green’s wanting to ban whaling all together, just another thing to add to their ban list I guess.
What is surprising though is the Green party logic. They advocate banning whaling outright, yet claim on other issues that prohibition and banning does not work, it would seem that bans are OK when it is something that they do not like, but, if it is something that they do want, like legalized marijuana, banning and prohibition will not work and will just drive it underground. So, what will be different about whaling?
Surely a compromise as proposed by National would be better for all concerned, clearly the tactics and methods used for the past ten or so years are not working.
The Pirates of the South Pacific have some stats on how many whales are killed each season by Japan here, where they explain that-
This year, the Japanese whaling fleet is targeting 935 piked (Minke) whales and another 50 fin whales,
So, just shy of 1,000 whales a year. Under the National proposal, what would change? Well, according to Eddie it would be reduced to around 410 a year, so less than 1/2 of what it is now. Seems a sensible solution at reducing the slaughter to me!
I personally am against whaling. I think the Pirates of the South Pacific are just that- Pirates and should be charged accordingly. I think Japan should stop all whaling.
