Can Obama Save the Whales?

January 29, 2008

At least one celeb came out yesterday to see the Kennedy/Obama lovefest at American University. Potential first-time voter and budding activist Hayden Panettiere stopped by the event. She was already in the neighborhood for a Save the Whales Campaign. Check out the video of Hayden trying to get some face-time with Barack.

Do you think Barack has the experience needed to save the whales on day one of his presidency?

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15 Comments

trésjolie 5 years

When you take the fish out of the ecosystem you create a unfavorable ripple effect for the whales, affecting even levels of plankton, in which almost all whales eat. Most countries has quotas of how many tons of fish they can take out of the water every season, and the usual procedure is to sell them the people owning the boats. Every responsible country evaluates every year what the number of each heavily fished species to make sure they don't "over fish", and endanger the species itself and the ecosystem as a whole. However, there are many illegal fish boats out there, pirates if you will, who are breaking the law and fish highly irresponsible, often in international or other countries' waters. Mostly they are organised in Russia and Asia, but I believe there is a lot of unregulated fishing going on in the lower half of South America as well. But whales are not endangering the fish population, it's rather the other way around.

trésjolie 5 years

When you take the fish out of the ecosystem you create a unfavorable ripple effect for the whales, affecting even levels of plankton, in which almost all whales eat. Most countries has quotas of how many tons of fish they can take out of the water every season, and the usual procedure is to sell them the people owning the boats. Every responsible country evaluates every year what the number of each heavily fished species to make sure they don't "over fish", and endanger the species itself and the ecosystem as a whole. However, there are many illegal fish boats out there, pirates if you will, who are breaking the law and fish highly irresponsible, often in international or other countries' waters. Mostly they are organised in Russia and Asia, but I believe there is a lot of unregulated fishing going on in the lower half of South America as well.But whales are not endangering the fish population, it's rather the other way around.

foxie 5 years

Absolutely not, there would be PLENTY of fish for everyone if we let the whales live. Many of them eat things that humans wouldn't want anyways. You should really educate yourself more on the issue of whaling before you post again, methinks.

rosehildensturf 5 years

THE WHALES R EATING ALL OF THE FISH, AND THERE IS NOTHING THAT KILLS THE WHALE!!! SO THE WHALE WILL KEEP EATING AND KILLING! THEY MUST GO!!!!!!!! THEY R TO MANY!!!!!

trésjolie 5 years

I didn't mean to come across as a whale hater. Hehe. I don't think they should kill them either, and I too cried at the end of Free Willy. I just think the approach is a little flawed, instead of attacking the long traditions of other countries and throw red paint and call them whale killers, we could approach the issue with logic. And I wanted to pinpoint the differences between the Norwegian whaling and Japanese whaling, because only the Japanese whaling has been covered by the media and they are not as similar as you would think. In some parts of the world the whale population is stable, but in most places the number is naturally decreasing because of heavy fishing(not whaling) and climate change, and I don't think we need to kill anymore of them. In a way it's good that Hayden Panettiere is bringing this matter up for discussion, but it's the manner she uses often turns the other side (policymakers of still whaling countries) away. And then nothing gets done. I don't know, it's a hard one.

Emma 5 years

whales are such cruel creatures. maybe they deserve to die

x_juicyfruit 5 years

I mean, it's a great cause, but the first order of business? Really?

foxie 5 years

Hunting for population control is never an excuse. There's no population to control... whales are being wiped out.

trésjolie 5 years

For the record here, Norway don't sell whale meat in their grocery stores and hardly any Norwegians have even tasted it. The number has gone severely down from the sixties, and the ones they do kill is for population control. Now, maybe they shouldn't kill any. At all. I get that. But in all of Scandinavia they treat cows(beef), pigs(pork) and sheep(lamb) as good as humans, and humans get free health care! So I agree with Foxie, take care of animal rights in own backyard first, and then lead by example.

nicachica 5 years

well i guess saving the whales is better than flashing your bits to the paps so go Hayden! (although i still think it's weird that she's dating a guy old enough to be her father...)

foxie 5 years

*sigh* I say again, countries like Japan and Norway won't listen to America on topics of animal cruelty because we are guilty of it too. We treat our cattle and chickens no better than they treat whales. No American can save the whales single-handedly. It will take all of America to collectively decide to treat our own animals better, then we won't be dismissed as selectively-sentimental hypocrites.