Save the Sardines!!

Some of you may remember that not so long ago I visited the port city of Shiminoseki where, being the risk-taker that I am, I risked my life by eating the local delicacy, fugu.

Shiminoseki has another famous local delicacy, not life-threatening but very controversial. If I were to tell you that late last year a certain fleet of Japanese ships set sail from Shiminoseki bound for the Antarctic Ocean, hell-bent on conducting “research” of a certain nature, I’m sure you could guess what that other delicacy is.

Yes. Whaling is now the most contentious issue between my homeland, Australia, and Japan where I now reside. The views of both sides seem most irreconcilable.

The Japanese government says: ‘it’s for “scientific research”.’

The Australian people say: ‘bull%$#! It’s cruel and barbaric and very unnecessary.’

Japanese people say: ‘there are too many whales and they are eating all of our fishes…like sardines.’

Until recently the Australian government has not said much at all on the matter.

The fact is most Japanese people don’t eat whale. For one thing, it’s too expensive. For another, they don’t like the taste. A lot of young people have never even tried it. From the point of view of the majority of Japanese the culling of whales is really just about preventing a decline in fish stocks.

And here I was thinking that whales only ate plankton. Shows how much I know.

Last night I was out drinking with friends. We were in a little restaurant, sitting at the long pinewood counter, our attention focused on the TV up on the wall. We watched as Australian Benjamin Potts, and Giles Lane from Britain, boarded the Yushin Maru No.2. Once on deck they did a bit of a victory dance, and one of them (or perhaps it was both) kept screaming “Yeah! Woooo!”

This caused everyone in the restaurant to have a good laugh. One of my friends, Masa, turned to me and said “Baka yaro!” Which means, “what idiots!”

I found myself in the position of having to defend these cowboys.

“They’re inside protected waters,” I explained.

“Huh?” said Masa.

“They’re in an area where they are not allowed to hunt whales. What they’re doing is illegal.”

Masa thought about this for a moment then said, “Who decided?”

It was a fair question. Who was it that decided these particular waters are a whale sanctuary? I wasn’t sure of the answer so I just told him it was the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

Today, however, I discovered that it was the Australian government. Either way the Japanese don’t particularly care. It’s hardly surprising given the soft stance taken by the previous Australian government. It will be interesting to see how the new Labor government handles things.

I'll finish with a couple of YouTube videos. Be warned, they are quite graphic! (They also get a bit off topic)

Japanese POV

*This video was made by Sasuke27 and is called "Racist Australia and Japanese Whaling"



Australian POV (日本語がないんけど　がんばれ!)

*This is a response to the above video. I'm not sure who made it.