Thursday, April 03, 2008

Save the Dugongs, Ya Bastards!

Moronuki Hideki and his band of merry pranksters in the whaling division at the Fisheries Agency, folks not known for their intellectual agility, have managed to raise an issue that, pushed the right way, has a decent chance of making Australian Government officials look like shambling, dissembling hypocrites.

Tokyo responds with dugong hunt attack
The Australian

Greg Roberts -- April 02, 2008 -- The spat between Japan and Australia over whaling has intensified, with the Japanese attacking Canberra's support for the harvesting of dugongs by indigenous hunters.

The Japanese will highlight the killing of dugongs by Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders in a submission to the International Whaling Commission for its meeting in June in the Chilean capital of Santiago.

Islander leaders agreed yesterday that too many dugongs were being taken for traditional food.

Australia has 80 per cent of the estimated world dugong population of 100,000.

The Japanese planned to slaughter 985 minke whales last summer in Antarctic waters, ostensibly for scientific research, but harassment by anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd and monitoring by an Australian patrol vessel is believed to have reduced the kill by as much as half.

The number of minke whales killed annually by the Japanese is similar to the number of dugongs killed each year in the Torres Strait, home to 20 per cent of Australia's dugongs...
Of course, if this is the row Moronuki decides to hoe, then he is going to give the Japan-U.S. alliance managers fits.

But since when has Moronuki's gang or any of their predecessors given a damn about the pain the whaling division inflicts upon the rest of the government?

Later - Yes, I do have a soft spot for dugongs.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Man, this is shameless-I mean, does GOJ have any idea about the history between White and Indigenous Australians? Do they know what Japan's reputation about minority issues abroad is like? Are they trying to look obtuse?

I suppose the answer is probably yes, yes, and yes.

Anonymous said...

PS-is there some obscure relationship between this and the Save the Dugong campaigns in Okinawa that I am missing?

Christopher said...

Here's a trivia question.

Where is the largest annual marine mammal hunt in the world?




Give me a C
Give me an A
Give me a N ....


OK, it's whale loving Canada. And it is on now (April)

Here's a nice link: http://www.hsus.org/protect_seals.html

Does Canada qualify for "The hypocrite of the year" award?