Canada Ignores Rescue Option, Kills 500 Endangered Narwhals
The Canadian government opted last week to allow the killing 500 narwhals trapped beneath ice rather than calling in icebreakers to free the animals, claiming the process would have been too stressful for the whales.
Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and star of Animal Planet’s Whale Wars, wrote a lengthy condemnation of the Canadian government’s decision. He noted that the government provides millions to fund ice-breaking for the annual baby seal hunt, but rejected the idea when proposed in order to save the whales.
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Canada allowed Inuit hunters to shoot the whales as they swam one-by-one to the one hole in the ice where they could come up for air. If minimizing stress was the goal, they miserably failed.
Watson believes the decision was made purely for economic reasons: breaking ice costs money, while killing narwhals makes money.
“Where Canada could have delivered the gift of life, they have instead unleashed a torrent of violence that has spewed the hottest of blood into the frigid seas of the high north,” wrote Watson, who is a Canadian citizen.
“Narwhal tusks sell for thousands of dollars and this bonanza was 4 times [the Inuits’] allowed ‘legal’ kill. This was an opportunity to put hundreds of valuable ‘unicorn horns’ on the market and to bring hundreds of thousands of dollars into the economy of the far North,” he continued. “Every Canadian should hang their head in shame at this atrocious environmental crime.”
Correction: Narwhals are in fact merely a threatened species, not endangered. However, there appear to be around 45,000 still in existence, meaning this killing spree wiped out a large chunk of the population. Narwhals also happen to be considered the animal most threatened by climate change, even more so than polar bears. It is also worth noting that the number of narwhals killed in this incident is actually now approaching 600.
Photo Credit: Glenn Williams on WikiMedia Commons under Creative Commons license.
Web Warlock’s comments seem to sum up Mr. Watson’s normal approach to logic versus hysteria. Having had some personal experience with Mr Watson during my ‘Sea Shepherd-guns or no guns-meet me in Panama-Washington Post Abbot or Costello period, I concluded that very often the truth is also trapped under the ice.
How often have misguided whales actually asked or followed our directions?
okay please read this it is something that everybody should read,consider and comment on……im canadian but if you lived in baffin islands they kill narwhals every year its just like killing cow’s to get steak or beff this is how they live how they survive the narwhals would have died any ways i agree that we could have sent in boats to break the ice but the narwhals would have gotten so scared they could have gotten heart attakes its a die die situation it’s life….i know that narwhals are almost endangered but you cant always blame us its global warming too!and then to say were “mad for losing wars and stuff so we take it out on animals thats Canada for you” that is not something you should say because you americans have had just as many faults as us but this is the food chain stuff like this happens…….now that you have read this i would like to tell you that i live in Ontario and i am 12 the only reasone I used my mothers acount to do this is because 1)my mom said i could 2)because is the things you amaricans said about us isn’t all that nice when the people on Baffin islands are just trying to live you should try to look into it and i am not EMBARASSED at all to be Canadian so nobody should be!
L’abattage de quelques 600 narvals pris dans les glaces à Pond Inlet au Nunavut à de quoi soulever le cœur des écologistes.
La première question qu’on doit se poser est celle-ci : a-t-on tout fait pour tenter de sauver ces animaux ? Ces narvals étaient dans une situation de détresse de laquelle ils ne pouvaient s’échapper, nous dit-on. La mort de faim ou d’asphyxie dans les glaces en formation était-elle inexorable ? Dans un pays qui compte de puissants brise-glaces et comptant sur l’aide des Inuits, si soucieux du bien-être des animaux, on s’attendait à un autre spectacle ; celui de la délivrance et de la vie. Et bien non.
Le Canada aura encore brillé par sa magistrale cruauté envers la faune sauvage. Dans un pays, dont le gouvernement conservateur fait l’apologie de la chasse commerciale jusqu’au cœur même de l’Europe, et utilise l’argent public dans des proportions intolérables pour subventionner cette chasse, la vie de ces quelques narvals comptait bien peu. Mr. Harper, que notre malheur commun a reconduit au pouvoir, et les hauts fonctionnaires du Département des Pêches et Océans feront preuve encore d’un manque de compassion affligeant. Non contents d’avoir gagner des votes chez les Inuits, dont la culture, invariablement, semble nécessiter la mort de mammifères marins, des ministres fédéraux sortent de leurs igloos, pour critiquer les propos excessifs de Paul Watson. Le Président de la Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, dont on réclame sa destitution, est un habitué des formules chocs et réitère ses exploits médiatiques en assimilant la tuerie des narvals à Pond Inlet, au massacre de My Lai, lorsque des soldats américains massacrèrent les habitants de tout un village, durant la guerre du Vietnam.
Paul Watson pouvait compter sur la réaction d’un ministère rompu aux manipulations de masse, et aux techniques d’intimidations, qui feignant l’indignation, pousse le ridicule jusqu’à demander des excuses pour des commentaires de nature « blessante » envers la culture Inuit. Watson sortira toujours vainqueur face à une institution de contrôle des pêches, qui ne perd jamais une occasion de se tourner en ridicule. Ayant les intérêts des chasseurs à cœur, quoiqu’il en coûte à l’image du Canada, une image déjà bien ternie par ces amoncellements ensanglantés de peaux de phoques, comment pouvons-nous respecter un gouvernement conservateur et des institutions qui détruisent la faune sauvage et saccage l’environnement avec une telle indifférence et une telle férocité.
Que le narval ne soit pas une espèce en voie de disparition pour mériter qu’on lui vienne en aide, est un argument fallacieux, qui traduit autant le manque de réflexion des uns que le manque de compassion des autres. Il serait bien de se rappeler qu’au Canada, il n’est pas trop tard pour protéger la faune et l’environnement et pour mettre un terme à l’arrogance de Mr. Harper et de son agence fédérale de destruction massive.
WHAT THE HELL !!!!! IDIOTIC !!!
You fucking asswipes,you think you can just go ‘kill them all!’ don’t you, you sll make me sick. Narwhals are an awesme animal. Yet you have the guts to say ‘eh, kill them all,’ It’s that kind af crap that is making the entire world go down the drain. It’s your fault that so many animals are endagered, I pay the organizations that help that, I recycle, I try to be pollution efficent. But the rest of us are turning into monsters and start throwing chairs. You should be ashamed of the human race.
this is amazingly stupid, their animals and I love them bt what I think is stupid is how you people think its fine that some 600 whales can be killed by people but if a person killed 600 people it would be soooo horrible we have to kill whoever did it :@ like fuk u then honestly its really sad
EVERYTHING IN THIS PLANET THINKS,FEELS,AND LEARNS
but obvioulsy we have a few who just cant see than *sigh* :’(