Good news and Happy New Year!
Two joyful major events simultaneously occurred and must be celebrated.
1 – For the first time in 27 years, Japan has been banned from harpoon fishing whales in Antarctica. Hundreds of sea mammals thus avoid suffering from pain and death, thanks to a brittle but tangible truce allowing southern hemisphere whales to finally be given a blow-er.
2 –Tamil Nadu’s (India) 98 domestic elephants are on vacation from December 11, 2014, to January 27, 2015. They’ve all been trucked and gathered into two camps – one for religious-use elephants, one for forest landscaping-use elephants – to undergo rejuvenation and physical and mental health monitoring. Meanwhile, mahouts are taught how to better take care of their pachyderms.
Good news and Happy New Year!
Two joyful major events simultaneously occurred and must be celebrated.
1 – For the first time in 27 years, Japan has been banned from harpoon fishing whales in Antarctica. Hundreds of sea mammals thus avoid suffering from pain and death, thanks to a brittle but tangible truce allowing southern hemisphere whales to finally be given a blow-er.
2 –Tamil Nadu’s (India) 98 domestic elephants are on vacation from December 11, 2014, to January 27, 2015. They’ve all been trucked and gathered into two camps – one for religious-use elephants, one for forest landscaping-use elephants – to undergo rejuvenation and physical and mental health monitoring. Meanwhile, mahouts are taught how to better take care of their pachyderms.
Science too Lethal
The International Court of Justice ordered Japan to stop its whaling program JARPA II and therefore cease all whaling activities in the Antarctic. Since 1987, Japan has killed over 10,000 whales in the Southern Seas.
In its decision delivered this morning, at The Hague, the Court declared that the “scientific whaling” program in Antarctica, as it has been designed and implemented by Japan, entails a disproportionate number of whales hunted and killed. According to the Court, Japan did not provide adequate explications to justify the lethal take of whales particularly minke whales. The Court pointed out that the number of whales killed under the framework of “Japanese scientific whaling” is offset by financial reasons. The product from treating whales – which is to say the commercialization of whale meat – finances the whaling campaign carried out by the factory ship the Nisshin Maru and support vessels.
