any time i get to post

farwell to tarwathie is a good day to me (even though it makes me cry each and every time). even found a version by eurythmics (which is a grand video at that. DO watch it)




Blue Whale Discovered Singing In New York Coastal Waters
ScienceDaily (May 30, 2009) — For the very first time in New York coastal waters, the voices of singing blue whales have been positively identified. Acoustic experts at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Bioacoustics Research Program (BRP) and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) confirmed that the voice of a singing blue whale was tracked about 70 miles off of Long Island and New York City on Jan. 10-11, 2009, as the whale swam slowly from east to west. At the same time, a second blue whale was heard singing offshore in the far distance..........

hey king george

remember what happened in star trek iv, the voyage home. be careful. if you get rid of the whales, the earth will be destroyed (and sure, i do believe that could happen. things are DANGEROUSLY balanced these days)

hey king george there are only about 300 right whales left. 300!!! do you know how small a number that is? do you know how dangerously close they are to nonexistence? wtf are you thinking?

Whale-Protection Cuts Sought

NOAA Scales Back Proposed 30-Mile Speed Limit Zones

By David A. Fahrenthold

Washington Post Staff Writer

The Bush administration yesterday proposed scaling back protected zones for endangered whales in the Atlantic Ocean, yielding to cargo companies' concerns about new speed limits for ships in these areas.

The proposal, unveiled yesterday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, could end more than a year of wrangling between federal fisheries scientists and the White House over new measures to protect the North Atlantic right whale. About 300 of the whales remain, and researchers say their tiny population has been reduced further by fatal collisions with large ships.

In July 2006, NOAA announced plans to create 30-nautical-mile buffer zones off of several East Coast ports, in which ships would be required to slow to 10 nautical miles per hour during certain times of the year.

But cargo companies said that this would cause their ships to lose time and burn more fuel, and the proposal was held up for months by the administration.......

scientific whaling?

no, it's not. it's whale killing specifically for sushi, sashmi and for all i know, whale b-b-q. putting everything else aside (moral reasons i mean), a lot of whales are endangered OR recovering (if taken off the endangered list). there are bans on hunting to protect them. japan doesn't obey them.
A Clash of Views On Whale-Loving
Creature Is a Delicacy in Japan, a Cause in the West

By Blaine Harden Washington Post Foreign Service
TOKYO, Jan. 25 -- At Ohana, a restaurant not far from the Japanese parliament in central Tokyo, a small plate of chilled raw whale costs $17.50. Grilled whale is $9, while whale in a hot pot goes for $29. The mammalian flesh for these dishes -- available year-round and served mostly to businessmen older than 40 -- comes from Japan's annual whale hunt, carried out, the government here declares, to advance "scientific" knowledge of cetaceans...............
.............The Japanese originally announced that they would take up to 50 humpback whales in the current hunt in addition to 800 minke and 50 fin whales. The humpback kill would have been the first in more than 40 years for a recovering species whose numbers had been reduced by about 90 percent by industrial whaling.
Under pressure from the United States and the European Union, where the humpback holds a special place in environmentalists' hearts, Japan backed away from that hunt. But the fleet is proceeding against the rest of the prey. ..

i've quoted it before and here it is again, from star trek iv: the voyage home
scotty to admiral kirk: 'Admiral, there be whales here'
and here is the amazing judy collins singing farewell to tarwathie accompanied by visions of whales.........