Word: cetaceans
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Oshika whaleland museum in this tiny village in northeastern Japan, you can get your cetacean two ways: stuffed, in the form of a plush children's toy, or canned, for dinner. But you can't get it fresh. Although Ayukawa was once a bustling whaling port, a two-decade-long international ban on commercial whaling has all but killed the industry here. Now just a pair of companies occasionally ply nearby waters, roving for the Baird's beaked whales they're still allowed to harvest. It's the sort of insignificant game the whalers of Ayukawa would have thrown back...
...many Japanese, the idea that it's obviously wrong to eat whale smacks of cultural bullying, whether or not they personally like a cetacean cutlet. And at a time when Japan is becoming ever more assertive on the global stage, it's not likely to stop doing something just because foreigners disapprove. "If other people don't want to eat whale, that's fine," said Onishi. "But we should be allowed to do what we want. Leave us alone...
...churning sea. Between the scenes of oceanic chaos come surprising and strange tableaus, as when the whale somehow transgresses the bounds of the earth and floats in outer space. You don't read "Leviathan" so much as give in to its visceral sensation. Harder depicts the angry cetacean as, among other things, a metaphor for our fears of nature. But, while quite fascinating to look at, I have to draw the line at the wildly steep cover price. There's simply no justifying $35 (25 euros!) for a cardstock cover and two tones of color...
...blubbering over the prospect of hungry cetacean connoisseurs waiting on shore with carving knives and barbecue grills and using CDs of Songs of the Humpback Whale for bait, you're not alone. Junko Sakurai of Greenpeace Japan doubts officials will make much of an effort to rescue beached whales if they know they can trade them in at the local supermarket. "We have pork, chicken, beef and fish. Why do we need whale?" says Sakurai, although as a member of Greenpeace, she may not be the best judge of the succulent taste of a nicely grilled finback-whale steak...
...world is starting to look a bit safer for whales. While the largest inhabitants of the cetacean nation mind their own business in the oceans' depths, their human supporters are hailing the International Whaling Commission's shift toward a solidly conservationist agenda. At a Berlin conference last week, the IWC - once a bastion of an industry now worth only about $50 million (compared to whale-related tourism's estimated $1.5 billion) - agreed for the first time to establish a conservation committee. Its task: to advise the IWC on potential threats to marine mammals from pollution, sonar gear, ships, global warming...