whaling was done many years ago for the products that came from them, from the oil right down to the rib bones for the ladies dresses . now that technology is right up there there is no need for it to happen again as most of the products that came from whales are now man made.as far as eating whale flesh  goes i am led to believe that it tastes like shite so there wont be a market for that in the western world

there are so many people opposed to whaling in autralia that it could not go ahead anyway. anyway is it not good we are seeing whale after whale there one of the coolest creatures on earth.

whaling like invading foreign lands for bounty was a product of a bygone age.
If they bring whaling back commercially, then I want pirating to be legal as well, cause a few Jap containerships could be mighty good bounty too!

Its not that you should not hunt whales that is the issue for me, its how they killed slowly and suffer for hours. Also they not a specie that can be managed and bred with reliable success. We better off harvesting creatures we can control, kill in a civilised and quick manner, with out long term depletion of their numbers.
JMO

How can you say Whaling is done for. Maybe most hadn't realise but three nations around the world still whale to this day. Japan even whales in our Australian Teritorial waters. The Australian government does nothing to stop them. Part of these waters are also a internationial whaling exclusion zone.

So i can't see that its stopped. Infact this year the Japs have annoced they will be starting to target Humback whales again..

Interesting enough i read a report the other day were China is now sending there navy with there fisherman and they are now fishing in Japanese waters. SO we now have countries proctecting there illegal fishing industry's. IS anyone else ever wondered if the Indo's started to send there navy with there fisherman what happens then?

Sounds like Whales need to be culled too, along with Great White Sharks

I'm heading out tomorrow for a KG fish and I'll pack the camera for a few photo's if I see any.

Cheers
Dale

Saw about 20 whales yesterday so their run south must be nearing an end up here. Over the lasy 4-5 years the numbers have IMO almost doubled which is a good sign that they are on their way back up in numbers.

Can still remember the pong that used to blow over Albany when the whaling station was still in operation [stank worse than the abattoirs where I worked and thats saying something!!]

With the tourist money that is brought in to the community from whale watching all the way from Esperance/Albany/Augusta right up to Exmouth on their up run and on the way back down far outweight any profits from killing them.

In time there may be the need to cull some but I don't think we will see it in our life time.

Nature will ultimately balance out the whales same as any other species .

With the increase in whales ,comes an increase in their natural predators white sharks and killer whales .

Don't mind the extra whales ........not keen on the other two but !

I can see a time in the future when the international community removes the ban on whaling .

Australia propably wont return to commerical whaling as our culture doesn't want whale meat or products ....export industry ,maybe ?

I find it hard to believe that whales can't be killed "humanely"

And therefore I don't see a problem with Whaling - to me there's no difference between killing a whale or any other living thing for Meat and other products

It seems hypocritical to jump up and down about killing a whale, and yet we all kill fish

And chicken and beef as they point out on south park.

At the moment and in to the future their value is from the tourist dollar not from what they would be worth as meat, blood and bone and whale oil.

Once you see them up close you never lose that feeling and its stays there regardless of how many you have seen. I used to see upwards of 50+ close up each day for months while fishing up north and it was bloody hard not to stop and have a look, that is the magic attraction they have on you.

they never ever have whaling, they are so majestic.  The only problem I have is with the tourist industry the whales become so used to the large or smaller boats near them, so they will be easy prey for the murdering Japs to kill in a agonising way within our territorial waters, either here or in the Antartica santuary zones,  a explosive head in the harpoon that blows their brain to bits then they suffocate in terrible pain in their own blood, as you see them in documentaries thrashing their tails till they are nearly dead, then they haul them up and start cutting them while still alive or dying.

At least we kill cows, bulls,  chickens, pigs and fish in a more humane way than the Japs do in their zest for whale meat.  After the second world war my mother was in Scotland and she had whale meat, she said it tasted like beef, they told her after she ate it, otherwise she would have never eaten it.

i'm getting low on whale oil for the burley bucket.

it is all about cultural and moral standards of each society.
I for one can't eat horse meat, yet others will.
Cats and Dogs are off my menu too, but beef, lamb and chicken is no issue. I do have a huge problem with tradional african slaughter where the throat is cut and they slowly bleed to death. For me the killing of anything for food must involve a quick and as painless as possible death. With fish I always either cut the throat or spike the brain.

The big issue with whales is their slow breeding rate and that they do not have young that can survive qucikly after birth without mothers-milk. You dealing with animals that take many years to become mature and breeders again. Also they produce only one off-spring per female per year if you lucky, where as many of our commercial breeding animals are easier to control and breed in numbers, Whales again are not in high numbers and their value as tourist dollars out weigh their dead meat value.