Bad News for Whales

It is one of those mornings that I am finding it hard to be positive.  The big breaking news day before yesterday was that the Japanese whalers managed to bag 333 minke whales, some 200 of them being females and 90% of those being pregnant.  All of this in the name of research to understand the species, allegedly.  Because obviously the way to help preserve a species is to kill multiple pregnant females?!!  These are scientists?

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/mar/24/japan-confirms-whales-killed-during-scientific-expedition-to-antarctica

This creates such sadness.  Human beings are killing one another with technologies never seen before.  The internet breeds hatred and it festers.  Human beings kill other species- for food, for fun, for economic gain, for a great hunting photo for social media, for the feeling of power.  Whales are hunted and killed in a battle in which they have little chance to escape what is coming.  The meat, laden with the toxins our excess has created, is sold for food when we could easily feed the world with plants.  Baby whales are never born.  Nearly 200 baby whales never born into the ocean.  I ask the Japanese government, 'How exactly does this help us to understand the species?'

People condemn groups like Sea Shepherd Conservation Society for being too aggressive.  Too extreme.  But no one is doing anything about this!  No government is willing to give up resources or, dare I say, some of their navy to conquer this.  There is no benefit in it for a country.  The ocean is so vast, it would take so many ships to really stop it.  And I am positive that a large population of Japan feels the same way I do, they must.  But they are not allowed to voice those feelings without fear of being targeted.  There are so many countries where environmentalists live in real fear because there is such hatred for them.  Some are targeted and killed for their beliefs.

So, as I sit here disgusted with the human race, I do find a gratitude for being in a land that I can sit and write this blog, post it, and not worry about losing my job or having death threats made.  I can write my blog for the very small population who might read it and I can write it with honesty.

I hope you will follow me as I train for the Old Port 1/2 Marathon to raise awareness for animals like these minke whales.  Help me to educate, help me on beach cleans this spring and summer, help me to spread the word on social media and maybe we can, bit by bit, foster a contagious passion for the creatures that cannot help themselves.  Maybe someday we can create a world that will prosecute these horrors rather than allow them in the name of scientific research.