• ryedaft@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    13·
    8 hours ago

    Whales are the farmers of the sea. They fertilize the open oceans and produce more food than they eat. Especially the biggest ones, like the fin whales Japan has decided to hunt again. So if you like sea food, maybe don’t kill the whales.

    • grysbok@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      151·
      11 hours ago

      I do give deer hunting a pass because they’re overpopulated in places (because humans wiped out their native predators).

      Feel free to try and change my mind so I can wipe that off my ever-shrinking personal “ethically ok to eat meats” list. For all I know this is one of those lies I was raised with that I’ve not examined since childhood. Edit: context is in Kentucky, USA 20 years ago. I don’t know about deer populations elsewhere and elsewhen.

      • IngeniousRocks (They/She) @lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        293·
        10 hours ago

        Former vegan, current vegetarian here.

        Dont stop hunting, please. Humans did a phenomenal job of ensuring a required hunting season for deer by wiping out all the natural predators, now without them we have to have culls. If you participate in said culls, PLEASE eat the meat, use the pelt, give the antlers to your dog. We’ve forced ourselves into a position where some of us MUST take up the mantle of predator. If you choose to, just be responsible with the carcass so it didn’t die for no good reason.

        • grysbok@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
          13·
          10 hours ago

          To add a wrinkle: there’s now “farmed deer”. It’s supposedly more environmentally friendly than farmed cow, but I don’t like it because •vague feelings I’ve not fully examined•.

          So don’t assume any venison you find in the grocery store was hunted.

      • qjkxbmwvz@startrek.websiteEnglish
        61·
        10 hours ago

        Only time I’ve eaten meat in the past ~30 years was when I ate some invasive fish that had been caught in a killathon to restore native habitat. Not that it’s my role to “give you a pass,” but I certainly do in this case!

        • grysbok@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
          61·
          10 hours ago

          Apparently there’s spear fisherfolk in Florida that kill invasive lionfish and provide them to local restaurants. I’m all for killing and eating invasive species.

  • Phen@lemmy.eco.brEnglish
    181·
    14 hours ago

    Tried making a joke here before reading more about it and now I regret the joke so I edited this out.

  • Scott_of_the_Arctic@lemmy.worldEnglish
    915·
    10 hours ago

    I don’t mean to be that guy but, whales are delicious. And you get approx 3500kg of meat (low estimate) from a minke whale, whereas you’ll get about 75kg from a commercially farmed pig. Meaning you have to kill 46 pigs to get the same amount of meat as 1 whale.

    Both pigs and whales are intelligent and emotionally developed animals. Whales live free and normal lives up until the point of their harpooning, whereas pigs are kept in filthy overcrowded conditions and kept alive with antibiotics because they wouldn’t last long without them. They are of course eventually killed, but unlike cattle they don’t get a quick death from a bolt gun to the head. No pigs are asphyxiated with carbon dioxide. They spend the last moments of their tortured existence choking to death.

    That doesn’t take into account the massive environmental impact of large pig farms. Because pigs eat more nitrogen rich food than other farm animals, their feces leads to over nitrification of anything downstream and eutrophication of waterways.

    So if you are sitting there chomping a bacon sandwich and bitching and moaning about whaling, take a long hard look in the mirror, because the pig farming you support is immeasurably worse both ethically and environmentally.

    • AnarchoDakosaurus@toast.oooEnglish
      26·
      10 hours ago

      I get the point you’re trying to make but if people ate whale the same way we ate pig the entire ocean ecosystem would have collapsed by now.

      Not to mention almost all whale species are on their way to being endangered right now, while factory farmed pigs aren’t.

      Maybe just go with the line all meat is murder rather bacon is worse then whale flesh lmao.

    • Dasus@lemmy.worldEnglish
      21·
      9 hours ago

      I don’t eat pork, really.

      But it’s not because I considered pigs that smart, it’s just a cruel practice, industrial farming. I’m fine with them being farmed if there’s proper regulation.

      I do eat deer, horse and reindeer among other things as well. Less so beef, or try to at least.

      So I guess if you’re talking about the whaling of the common minke whale which isn’t a threatened species at the moment, and I’d look into the regulation and practices, I guess I’d be fine with eating some.

      Although I would still attribute vastly higher intelligence to whales than deer and pigs. I mean, it’s hard to measure, but pigs eat their own babies which they kill by accident. That’s why they have like a dozen. And prey animals like deer are usually kinda frantic and not seemingly that smart.

      Whereas whales, we don’t even know how intelligent they are, but some species are definitely super intelligent and the communication they use is complex af.

      Still, can’t say you’re wrong in your points, as I often make the same points for deer, but they breed kinda lot and they honestly have to be kept in check so they don’t ruin environments whereas I’m pretty sure whales aren’t considered pests anywhere? I mean, I’m not at all sure, but I am guessing. There’s those ship destroying ones, but that seems targeted against humans and not them generally destroying their environment.

  • Smee@poeng.linkEnglish
    55·
    12 hours ago

    Poor whales. It’s better to eat the children, that’s why civilized people eat lamb and chicken.

  • IninewCrow@lemmy.caEnglish
    818·
    15 hours ago

    Don’t feel so bad for the whales … we do the same to human beings too