Now that I have more or less calmed down, I would want to share my thoughts on this matter..
The "reason" that the Japanese kept using to "justify" their whaling is that it is part of their culture and tradition.. well, if their logic is accepted, then the headhunters in Borneo should be allowed to continue to cut off heads of their enemies, since that is their culture and traditions too.. and we should also allow the female genital cutting to continue in some Asian and African countries too, since it is their culture and traditions!
Just like the tiger penis, bear bile from its gall bladder, rhino horns, shark fins and many other body parts of endangered animals, consumption of these "exotic cultural" food should be banned.. There is no special nutritional value in eating whale or dolphin meat.. in fact, these meat are high in mercury.. and could easily lead to mercury poisoning! In fact, there were already news reports that said among others, Mercury levels of whale-eating town's residents 10 times average, Mercury In Packaged Whale Meat Across Japan May Be A Major Health Problem and Mercury warning for Japanese diners who eat dolphin meat.. As if the problem of aging society and low-birth rate isn't bad enough for the nation of the Rising Sun, that they wanted to poison themselves further...
Of course, the Japanese are not the only guilty ones.. The Norwegians, Russians, Icelanders, Faroese have cetacean blood on their hands too.. If they wanna use the culture-and-tradition reason to hunt whales and/or dolphins, then they should set out on wooden ships that use sail(wind) and harpoon these mammals using their bare hands like what their forefathers did, and not use any kind of modern technology to "assist" them.. when they do that, just like what some of the Eskimos are still doing now, they can hunt as many whales/dolphins as they are able to..
At the wedding of my senpai 2 years ago, I was given a door gift that was filled with whale meat products.. Initially I didn't want to take them but I was also curious as to why the Japanese are so into it.. so I decided to bring the 2 cans of whale meat back to Malaysia when I moved back from Japan..
A look closer at the can, one would see the words written at the side that says.. 鯨は日本の食文化。海の生物資源を大切に利用しましょう。 when translated means "(Eating) Whale is Japanese culinary culture. Let's use the biological resources of the sea consciously." which I find it to be very ironic, won't you agree? 
Then further at the side, another paragraph that says, 本製品は国際捕鯨取締条約にもとづいて、（財）日本鯨類研究所が実施した捕獲調査の副産物です。捕獲海域は、南氷洋（ＷＡＯ）、北西太平洋（ＷＮＰ）と缶ぶた上段の左側に記載しております。 when translated means "This product complies to (the regulations of) the International Whaling Commission and is a by-product of the research done by The Institute of Cetacean Research. The whaling area consists of the Antarctic and the Northwest Pacific as indicated on the top left corner of the can." which I find to be obvious self-justifications..
Then I pour out the content and heated it up.. and it looked like this.. 
which, to me, tasted like pork.. seriously, there is nothing special in its taste nor its texture.. and considering its super high mercury content, I can't find any good (rational) reason to eat it! I really hope that everyone will realize this and stop killing these beautiful cetaceans.. It is bad enough that we are polluting the sea (like the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill) and depriving them of their habitat, we shouldn't be massacring these majestic mammals at the same time.. Spread the words around and help save these sea creatures!! Else sooner or later, we might be the only living creature alive in this world.. and we won't last too long after that either..
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