61st International Whaling Commission Meeting in Madeira

[AXYS]

This petition won't go to Japan, Norway or Iceland, but to the 2009 meeting of the International Whaling Comission (IWC) in June.
In IWC there are more nations that support sustainable whaling, and there are less countries (yet) that support Japan, but Japan has its habit to pay down some recently joined countries to vote on their side.

So there's always a risk to be a voting which succeeds then Japan and its payed down supporters will annul the standing whaling moratorium since 1986, so that they don't have to kill under the guise of lethal scientific research. Of course it's not just about Japan's coast, but also the international waters of the Antarctic area in which Japan whales the most.

But if you would see in the petition, it's looks like this:

To: All Member Nations of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and their respective Government Leaders

We, the undersigned, call on all member nations of the IWC to vote to immediately stop all commercial whaling and lethal scientific research whaling by Japan, Norway, and Iceland and to enforce the current global whaling moratorium.
[spoiler]Furthermore, we call on the Governments of Japan, Norway, and Iceland to stop their respective government sponsored whaling operations and to cease the hunting of any and all cetacean (dolphin, whale, and porpoise) species as whaling poses an unnecessary and unacceptable risk to both the health and recovery of surviving cetacean populations and to the people who consume cetacean meat which has been shown to contain extremely high levels of contaminants including Mercury, Dioxin, DDT, PCBs and is unsafe for human consumption.[/spoiler]

So there also could be an other version of voting with the support of majority of the nations which stops whaling nations to stop whaling immediately, no guise, no commercial whaling at all.
They just have to enforce the standing moratorium.
IWC can do that, it has its power to enforce it.
These voting countries can be influenced,
Hayden and I'm sure the media will be also there..
And I have to say again the raised $ charity goes to the Whaleman Foundation which can spend it wisely.

Let just the petition worry about IWC, and Barack Obama -who supports Hayden- worry about boycotts, could we?

[smooshable]

Let just the petition worry about IWC, and Barack Obama -who supports Hayden- worry about boycotts, could we?

It is not imediately clear from reading any of your reply, but particularly that last line, that you understood anything that I said.

[AXYS]

Once again...

In IWC there are more nations that support sustainable whaling, and there are less countries (yet) that support Japan

It's still a fact, that's why Japan would leave IWC. If we encourage them with the petition and media whoop de doo to ban lethal scientific research as well and make the decision rather sooner than later, they'll enforce whaling countries to the standing moratorium at long last,
then if they won't comply, OR which is possible, Japan and others will leave IWC, then Obama could go with the boycott, I hope it's clear now.

Let just the petition worry about IWC, and Barack Obama -who supports Hayden- worry about boycotts, could we?

It is not imediately clear from reading any of your reply, but particularly that last line, that you understood anything that I said.

Or there is only pure pessimism and pity on your side, I really can't help you there.
Just please, don't jump off the window!
But let it go, and let people be more optimistic in this topic!!

[smooshable]

Or there is only pure pessimism and pity on your side, I really can't help you there.
Just please, don't jump off the window!
But let it go, and let people be more optimistic in this topic!!

Obama isn't going to boycott Japanese products at the best of times, let alone in an ecconomic crisis like now. Your optimisim is naieve and it is hurting the whales more than its helping. Why should I let that go? I care about saving whales.

[AXYS]

@smooshable: So I hurt whales, while you do NOTHING.

BUMP

Why should I sign this? - more detailed version:

On the 27th September 2007, professional surfer Dave Rastovich led an international group of over 30 surfers, celebrities and musicians on a peaceful paddle-out ceremony to honour the dolphins killed in Japan. The following day, the fishermen began killing dolphins. The surfer crew returned including 'Heroes' TV star Hayden Panettiere and Australian actress Isabel Lucas. After the group entered the water, the fishermen shouted at the group, jabbing them with poles and threatening them with the boat propellers. The fishermen almost arrested them and Hayden was a "wanted" person in Japan for long...

This year - instead of trying to get herself arrested - the Heroes star wants to use the help of SocialVibe. SV allows you to get sponsored by your favorite brands on your social profiles (MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, MyYearbook, etc.) while earning points and free charity donations for the reward of your choice with a simple badge.
More than 31,000 $ donations have been collected so far with SocialVibe and 20k $ of this had been already paid to the Whaleman Foundation.

Hayden's also joined by other celebrities,
like Pierce Brosnan (James Bond), and Isabel Lucas.

Right now, despite the worldwide moratorium on commercial whaling, Japanese, Norwegian, and Icelandic fisherman are going to kill over 3,000 whales in addition to 20,000 dolphins and porpoises this year selling their meat for profit.
Since 1986, Japan has defied the moratorium by killing thousands of whales under the guise of "lethal scientific research".
Norway has also defied the commercial whaling moratorium, killing over 500 minke whales per year as well. This year they plan to kill over 1,500 minke whales.
Iceland also joined ranks with Japan as pirate whalers by whaling under the guise of scientific research.

Demonstrations against whaling tend to take place in the mentioned countries as well. In times past, local whalers in Japan would take at most one whale a month never killing the young calves or mothers with lamb, it was beleived to be bad luck. However these days with dollars in their eyes and ocean's stocks declining, fishermen kill all inside mothers and calves receive not a second thought.
On top of that, Japan whales not only in their coasts. Unfortunately they kill a lot of whales every year in international waters at Antarctica.

It is still not known if some species will ever recover, even after decades of protection. The blue whales of the Antarctic are at less than 1 percent of their original abundance, despite 40 years of complete protection. Some populations of whales are recovering but some are not. Only one population, the East Pacific grey whale, is thought to have recovered to its original abundance, but the closely related West Pacific grey whale population is the most endangered in the world. It hovers on the edge of extinction with just over 100 remaining. Japan started whaling under the name of "scientific research" after the IWC settled the whaling moratorium. They refer to scientific purposes , but it's well known that 3000 ton of whalemeat make it to market every year in a value of 52 million dollars.

The blubber of whales in some areas is highly contaminated with organochlorines such as PCBs, pesticides, and extremely high levels of Mercury, Dioxin, DDT, so it is unsafe for human consumption. Organochlorines are known to damage development of children and affect reproduction by whales.
Then this whalemeat get to some restaurants or - most of the amount into cans and some dog foods.

Whales are one of the most important species in the food pyramid of the oceans. If you kill them, you kick up the balance the oceans. For example, Japan have serious medusa problem in their coasts. Now, the medusas are planctonic lifeforms in their earlier lifestage, and several species of the whales eat planctons. So, if Japan kills more whales, they'll have more serious problems since medusas are dangerous not for people only, but for fishes as well where the fishermen get their food supply from.

Known environmental threats to whales include global warming, pollution, overfishing, ozone depletion, noise such as sonar weaponry, and ship strikes. Industrial fishing threatens the food supply of whales and also puts whales at risk of entanglement in fishing gear.

• It has been estimated that a staggering 100 million sharks and rays are caught and discarded each year. Tuna fisheries, which in the past had high dolphin bycatch levels, are still responsible for the death of many sharks. An estimated 300,000 cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) also die as bycatch each year, because they are unable to escape when caught in nets.
• Another significant impact of human activity on the marine environment is pollution. The most visible and familiar is oil pollution caused by tanker accidents. Yet despite the scale and visibility of such impacts, the total quantities of pollutants entering the sea from oil spills are dwarfed by those of pollutants introduced from other sources. These include domestic sewage, industrial discharges, urban and industrial run-off, accidents, spillage, explosions, sea dumping operations, mining, agricultural nutrients and pesticides, waste heat sources, and radioactive discharges.

Cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) are not fish, but mammals just like us. They are warm-blooded, breathe in air through their lungs, bear their young alive and suckle them on their own milk, and have hair, although very little of it. They give birth to calves every 2-3 years only, after 12-15 months of pregnancy, so their reproduction is very slow and is the main barrier of recovering to their original abundance.
Ceteceans' lifespan is similar to humans', so depending on species they can live for up to 80 years. It shows advanced communication that just like humans, they can communicate not only with each other - but about each other as well, so they can forward information. Scientific researchs prove that they're able to recognize their own bodies in a mirror, and can cry in pain. They have advanced memory too, as they can recognize by sound a member of their family after decades of separation.

It was in the 20th Century that most whale species met their fate. High speed ships, modern hunting equipment (like whaling-guns and harpoon ships launched to sea since 1925) pushed these giant mammals to the edge of extinction in a few decades. More than 2.5 million whales fell victims to these marine slaughters in our previous century.

Scientific examinations confirms that if their hunting would be banned forever
only that would insure the survival of the whales...

Hayden Panettiere, Pierce Brosnan, Isabel Lucas, The Whaleman Foundation and SocialVibe have teamed up to collect 1,000,000 signatures on the exclusive Whaleman petition to put a stop to commercial whaling. More than 31,000 $ donations have been collected so far which will go to the Whaleman Foundation. This petition will be taken to the June 2009 meeting of The International Whaling Commission.

Now, President Obama already announced that the United States firmly opposes whaling. Earlier, when Obama was only a candidate, Hayden has asked him for his opinion, and he promised he'll support her cause.

But we still need your help, please sign!

1 minute:

It's easy!
You don't have to join SocialVibe anymore, only if you want 50B naq from me,
or you want to be a member of the SV community...
If so, then you take this easy and quick guide for joining: >> Here <<

or...

Just sign Hayden's petition here - without joining SV.



"To: All Member Nations of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and their respective Government Leaders

We, the undersigned, call on all member nations of the IWC to vote to immediately stop all commercial whaling and lethal scientific research whaling by Japan, Norway, and Iceland and to enforce the current global whaling moratorium. Furthermore, we call on the Governments of Japan, Norway, and Iceland to stop their respective government sponsored whaling operations and to cease the hunting of any and all cetacean (dolphin, whale, and porpoise) species as whaling poses an unnecessary and unacceptable risk to both the health and recovery of surviving cetacean populations and to the people who consume cetacean meat which has been shown to contain extremely high levels of contaminants including Mercury, Dioxin, DDT, PCBs and is unsafe for human consumption."

On behalf of The Whaleman Foundation and Hayden Panettiere:

Thank you for your help!

Stargate SWAT unit (:P) gears up to stop whale slaughter

[AXYS]

BUMP

[kojak]

BiG BuMp, for a great cause people Keep it going.

[AXYS]

BiG BuMp, for a great cause people Keep it going.

BIG THX mate,
and I'd encourage Australian people to sign it,
as Hayden was there at last weekend & she said the same..

Less than 60 days remained.. still 870k signs needed.
You can sign it in less than a minute.

http://jointhecauseforwhales.site50.net/sign.html

[smooshable]

hurting the whales more than its helping

So I hurt whales, while you do NOTHING.
Yeah, you LIKE and CARE about whales although you won't help us A BIT saving them!
Moreover, with this niggling you set back the idea of an official organization dedicated to it.
No answer needed!!!

What's your point exactly?

Just please, leave this topic and don't look back...


BUMP

You twist my words good sir, I won't help you hurt the cause further, a cause I do care a lot about. An organisation built on the idea of easing the consciences of people such as yourself helping you sleep at night does hurt the cause. It makes people feel they have done something so in actual fact they have to do nothing. I personally admit I do nothing to help whales per se but that's because my time is finite and I spend what time I do have actually helping improve animal rights in other ways. I am a vegetarian, I spend time talking to people about the plight of animals in this country and around the world in the hopes of convincing them to change their actions and perhaps buy fake fur coat instead of something that rewards the harmers of animals with monetary profit.

I am of course ok with people who wish to do nothing, like my own, time is limited and you have to prioritise. There are many worthwhile causes for which to pursue, not just on the rights of whales and other animals but humaitarian and environmental issues as well. I do however have a problem with conscience appeasing such as this. That is why i am taking the time to discus this. If you have a right to use this public forum to convince people to do something trivial and demeaning to a very important cause, then I have the right to point this out. People should be aware just what they are signing up for.

If you are infact serious about helping to end commercial whaling then I would be happy to brainstorm with you ideas for an effective form of protest. If you are just interested in conscience appeasing and fantasising about pretty starlets then perhaps it is you who should find somewhere else to do it.

[AXYS]

Ah, come on...
First, we've already discussed this, but you have just ignored my arguments saying I don't understand yours, but I answered exactly those..
Second, don't call Hayden starlet and such. She has done her job back at Taiji which was scary, and she's still doing her job as an activist. She's joined the cause at Whaleman Foundation, because she cares about whales more than YOU or anybody else of us does!
Plus, don't call Whaleman Foundation an organisation of "conscience appeasing". Go to their website before and see what they have done already, it's just completely retarded to judge an organization out of the blue..
Third, what could one do? Jump in the water to save the whales? Like Hayden did, but ok, these things are that Greenpeace does everyday. And if you don't beleive in petitions, don't you think that it's the congressmen's and such authorities' role to make boycotts and things that you beleive in??
Then why do you want to STOP these normal people to sign this petition then IWC could make the [filtered] moratorium stronger so whaling ships can't escape the checkups referring to "lethal scientific research" with tens of drawn whales behind. There's no need for research, it was a mistake to put this wicket in. In IWC there are more nations that support sustainable whaling, and there are less countries (yet) that support Japan, Norway and Iceland. They just have to enforce the standing moratorium, but HARD with no wickets. I think IWC could do it either way!! Though, with 1M signatures, more than 31,800 $ charity and with the help of media ramp, we can influence IWC's CONSCIENCE to do that rather SOONER (June) than later, and last but not least - BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!
So why do you want to set back this effort? Huh? What else could a NORMAL person do aside from signing a petition? Nothing! Nothing else at least in order to save the whales! Shall we go to streets striking or what? If you feel so, you can still do THAT after signing this in less than a minute. I could advertise now SocialVibe since there are lots of cause that you can support with the help of the internet world and with $ charity of sponsors. But I do not, because it's simple, if you care about THIS cause just don't come with the prioritising, at least you can do is sign it, what else have you done so far, hmm?
Niggling? Yea, I forgot... you think I'm hurting the whales with "conscience appeasing" and I need to be stopped, whatever.
But then, you just ignored the IWC part once again.

[AXYS]

Hey Avril... would you keep flame out of here?
If you bump then just please do it in a way so people actually will think of signing the petition.. please?

edit: nevermind, modded out

[smooshable]

she cares about whales more than YOU or anybody else of us!

I think a petition is the least worrying thing here

You know, in like 10 years of internet usage and in that time being a member of such groups as buffy fan clubs, nerdy humor sites (xkcd and yahtzee for the win) and a year admining these forums, that is still the saddest thing I have seen on the entire internet.

*shakes head*

Oh man I am agreeing with biscuit and you all know how that hurts me.

But to pretend you didn't just say that for a moment so I can reply to your post with some measure of respect. Regular people can do a bit, I've offered to help you find ways to do your bit and convince others to do the same. Just saying that you've countered my points isn't the same as actually **Filtered** them.

Oh and I don't doubt that Hayden swam to save whales or what ever, but she's still a starlet. A starlet is basically a young tv / movie star. It's what she is, I can't help that but even if she wasn't, this seems like a rather semantic point to bring up.

$32 000 is nothing, it's a drop in the ocean compared to the money Japan, Norway etc are giving to tiny countries to vote their way, countries that couldn't care less about whaling either way, they care about the money for voting.

[AXYS]

I left out a "does" from the end of sentence, so what?
You guys really don't have anything else to do?
Like Biscuit in the European Parliament elections topic what's your point guys with FLAMING and SPAMMING topics? Postcount?

Smooshable I have nothing more to say to you, so if you deny common sense to keep spam and flame out of this, then I'll just ignore you.
You made your point, I made mine, so let people decide if they are able to spend 1 minute of their life to actually sign this or - according to your opinion it's HURTING the whales and then just do NOTHING.

OK?
I'll not argue with you I'm fed up with this and you.
I have never seen so unfriendly people!
Seeing back how this topic started (closed for a month because of "commercial links"), then a good period when actually people supported it and now you just flaming and spamming.
I ask nicely the other, more friendly SGW community members who support this to give their voice as before. Because this once noble topic became smooshable's playground.

I'm out.

[spoiler]

Hayden has done her job back at Taiji which was scary, and she's still doing her job as an activist. She's joined the cause at Whaleman Foundation, because she cares about whales more than YOU or anybody else of us does!
Plus, don't call Whaleman Foundation an organisation of "conscience appeasing". Go to their website before and see what they have done already, it's just completely retarded to judge an organization out of the blue..
What could a normal people do? Jump in the water to save the whales? Like Hayden did, but ok, these things are that Greenpeace does everyday. And if you don't beleive in petitions, don't you think that it's the congressmen's and such authorities' role to make boycotts and things that you beleive in??
Then why do you want to STOP these normal people to sign this petition then IWC could make the [filtered] moratorium stronger so whaling ships can't escape the checkups referring to "lethal scientific research" with tens of drawn whales behind. There's no need for research, it was a mistake to put this wicket in. In IWC there are more nations that support sustainable whaling, and there are less countries (yet) that support Japan, Norway and Iceland. They just have to enforce the standing moratorium, but HARD with no wickets. I think IWC could do it either way!! Though, with 1M signatures, more than 31,800 $ charity and with the help of media ramp, we can influence IWC's CONSCIENCE to do that rather SOONER (June) than later, and last but not least - BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!
So why do you want to set back this effort? Huh? What else could a NORMAL person do aside from signing a petition? Nothing! Nothing else at least in order to save the whales! Shall we go to streets striking or what? If you feel so, you can still do THAT after signing this in less than a minute. I could advertise now SocialVibe since there are lots of cause that you can support with the help of the internet world and with $ charity of sponsors. But I do not, because it's simple, if you care about THIS cause just don't come with the prioritising, at least you can do is sign it, what else have you done so far, hmm?
Niggling? Yea, I forgot... you think I'm hurting the whales with "conscience appeasing" and I need to be stopped, whatever.

[/spoiler]

[kojak]

Here Here, Bump.

[smooshable]

Alright so I listened to what you said and went and looked at what Hayden and her group have done.

Hayden has gone swimming with dolphins (admitently trying to stop them being hunted) and in the process offended a large chunk of the Japanese population (making them less likely to take her seriously), ebayed a date with herself to raise money (for what the money was used isn't clear but possibly postage stamps because...) she has written and delivered some what I can only assume were stern warnings to the Norwegian and Japanese ambassadors. Although it was a half hearted attempt, I mean she must have known that she couldn't free a dolphin I will give her credit because he bought a lot of attention to a cause most people didn't know existed. But she hasn't saved any yet. Also, I was unable to find out, how many whales did the letters save? Do you know? Can you ball park it?

Also completely removing any small resemblance to credibility that she may have gained from her dolphin swim, she isn't against all whaling, it's ok for native Americans to do, you know because of their culture or what ever, just not for those pesky asians to do for their culture. Undertones of racism? I dun know, I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and say it's probably just ignorance but I can't be sure, can you?