Britain's Whale Hunters

[DogFox123 1,379]

 

 

 

 

Oh without a doubt but I would say commercial hunting has a massive impact on whale population due to their gestation period and low birth numbers.

I'm not so sure. I'm not an expert so please show otherwise but doesn't accidental catch by commercial fisherman and ship collisions kill far more than hunting?

Yes they do but I would say these are a necessity, I don't think whaling is. I'm sure hunting isn't quite as severe these days as past times but a whale is not a hare or a grouse and can't bounce back like these animals can IMO.

[Born Hunter 17,763]

 

 

 

 

Oh without a doubt but I would say commercial hunting has a massive impact on whale population due to their gestation period and low birth numbers.

I'm not so sure. I'm not an expert so please show otherwise but doesn't accidental catch by commercial fisherman and ship collisions kill far more than hunting?

Yes they do but I would say these are a necessity, I don't think whaling is. I'm sure hunting isn't quite as severe these days as past times but a whale is not a hare or a grouse and can't bounce back like these animals can IMO.

 

 

But they are doing while be hunted in a regulated way aren't they? Of course not as successfully as a small fast breeding critter. The dominant cause of human related whale deaths is non hunting related, simply a result of our expanding infrastructure. As is the case with almost all other population declines. Banning modern whaling is purely an ethical argument from what I can see, in terms of conservation it seems to have little effect. If the impact of hunting is minimal on conservation then opposition to it cannot be a conservation based argument surely?

 

The bad old days of 19th and 20th century whaling are certainly terrible and like a lot of totally unregulated hunting in such times was the primary cause of population decline. But I think it's unfair to lump 21stC in with the bad old days.

Edited October 20, 2016 by Born Hunter

[DogFox123 1,379]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh without a doubt but I would say commercial hunting has a massive impact on whale population due to their gestation period and low birth numbers.

I'm not so sure. I'm not an expert so please show otherwise but doesn't accidental catch by commercial fisherman and ship collisions kill far more than hunting?

Yes they do but I would say these are a necessity, I don't think whaling is. I'm sure hunting isn't quite as severe these days as past times but a whale is not a hare or a grouse and can't bounce back like these animals can IMO.

But they are doing while be hunted in a regulated way aren't they? The dominant cause of human related whale deaths is non hunting related, simply a result of our expanding infrastructure. As is the case with almost all other population declines. Banning modern whaling is purely an ethical argument from what I can see, in terms of conservation it seems to have little effect. If the impact of hunting is minimal on conservation then opposition to it cannot be a conservation based argument surely?

 

The bad old days of 19th and 20th century whaling are certainly terrible and like a lot of totally unregulated hunting in such times was the primary cause of population decline. But I think it's unfair to lump 21stC in with the bad old days.

The numbers are unclear to this day but it's common sense that commercial hunting will have a big negative impact on the species.

 

They are slow breeders, have long gestation periods and have few young.

 

I've read scientists believe it takes around 20 years for a female to replace itself with one mature female offspring.

Edited October 20, 2016 by DogFox123

[Born Hunter 17,763]

The numbers are unclear to this day but it's common sense that commercial hunting will have a big negative impact on the species.

They are slow breeders, have long gestation periods and have few young.

 

I've read scientists believe it takes around 20 years for a female to replace itself with one mature female offspring.

 

 

I'm not a big fan of the loose application of 'common sense' to science, especially when the same assertion has been shown to be false in other cases.

 

I didn't want to get into a debate on this really, the thread seemed more about history than politics. Just can't help myself but pick up on statements like 'humans haven't sustainably hunted anything'.

[DIDO.1 22,715]

The hunting isn't the problem, it was the sheer volume that were taken, a scientist on the programme who had watched the elephant sales for years was asked could the population handle sustainable hunting, to which he took a while to say anything, then replied yes, but so far humans haven't been able to sustainably harvest anything, so no, which I thought summed us up as a race, we take take take till there's nothing left to give

Hunting areas in Africa have sustainable elephant hunting....it's the areas where trophy hunting is banned that they get over poached....that and when the blacks are battling

[gamerooster 1,179]

Seals not sales, feckin autocorrect

[Country Joe 1,411]

With commercial whaling being banned now for a number of years does anyone know the state of the Whale population?