Interesting week for whales and bad science:

• The International Whaling Commission conducted an independent review of Japan's "scientific" whaling program. 56 scientists (including 29 from Japan) concluded that Japan's program has no scientific value and should be stopped. In the 18 years that the taxpayer-funded Japanese fleet has been "scientifically" harvesting whales in order to determine their "mortality rate" nearly 7000 whales have been killed.
• The Whaling Ship, Nisshin Maru limped back into Tokyo Bay with an estimated cargo of 505 Minke Whales and 3 Fin Whales. Minke Whales are a threatened species while Fin Whales are endangered. The Nisshin Maru's whaling season was cut short by a fire that killed one crew member while threatening to dump industrial waste into the pristine Antarctic region.
• In a related story, Greenpeace's anti-whaling ship Esperanza has been "effectively banned" from docking in Tokyo. The Japanese whaling lobby under their disingenuous and cynically titled front, The Institute for Cetacean Research released a statement that they would be looking to file charges against the conservation groups, Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd, and called them terrorist organizations.

Shigetoshi Nishiwaki Spokesman for The Institute for Cetacean Research and "whaling" expedition leader

Why the fuck does Japan want to kill whales? Click--Here--for more.

For more on Japanese Whaling go to--Source #1.
For more on Shigetoshi Nishiwaki, our favorite sailor boy, go to--Source #2.

Shut up and dance everybody,

--Sharky

technorati tags: whales, whaling, Minke Whales, Fin Whales, endangered species, threatened species, environmental regulations, Japan, Japanese food, Hard Gay, Greenpeace, Sea Shepherd, terrorism