Quote:
Originally Posted by aico
This is a pretty general statement, what type of whale are you talking about. They are not hunting all whales, just the two mentioned.
I think it's cute when a cow nudges her calf up to teach it how to walk, that's right before they beat the living shit out of it and call it Veal.
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Yep - what is more innocent than a calf with big eyes
The whales Iceland is hunting are minke and fin - both are highly vulnerable species.
There are three species, at least in quanitity, in the breeding region I mentioned - humpback, pilot and killer whales (false) - killers are not on the endangered list (as far as I know) tho the humpback is vulnerable/at risk.
Each year in the location I mentioned the whales end up on their way north/south and the end up in this region and breed. It's an awesome place and so far, almost untouched, (but getting threatened to a level) with plenty dolphins (spinner, bottlenose and spotted). Often where there are pods of whales, the dolphins are following along. The land area from the coast is much the same - teeming with wildlife.
A couple of occasions we were on a boat (not a massive boat) in that area and whales were... around 30-50 ft off the side of the boat. The problem was they could turn the boat over, but was interesting stuff!
Another night the fuel was low on a boat and went off to fill up - the damned fuel station was closed and had to knock up the guy for fuel. By this time it was dark and the boat had no lights (no problem from other boats - there are none around). I had no clue whatsoever where we were - it was pitch dark *lol* The main problem going back was the possibility of being overturned by a whale
Seeing nature "in the raw" is amazing stuff - even better when there are biologists around as guides, else ya can miss a lot. We have two biologists (one marine and the other on land-based critters) working down there now cataloging all the species and the sealife immediately off the shoreline - so far the list is extensive (tho half of it, I've no clue what these creatures are).