Fishery or abomination?

[Paul]

Until about the 1960's or 70's no-one bothered much about whaling - it was considered a legitimate fishery along with others that had continued for thosands of years.

Are we being railroaded by the environmentalists into a single way of thinking? What about countries like Japan where whale meat and blubber has always been a vital food stuff because there's relatively little farm land?

Or are whales just too special to consider killing? - in the way that many people in India consider cattle are - should we stop killing cattle then beacuse they're right and we're wrong? Isn't that what we're saying to the Japanese?

Then again whales are difficult to kill outright and some say they cannot be humanely killed outright and that they always suffer.

Opinions?