Norway is one of the few countries still hunting whales for meat.
Uh, yes, I know. What's your point?
Have you ever eaten whale?
Yup. Several times.
It is frikkin' disgusting
It is? I never noticed. Good to have you around to tell me how to think about a piece of food.
I'll freely admit it's not my favorite meat, and I don't buy it myself, but in which way is it disgusting? If what you were served was truly disgusting, I'd assume that it was spoiled.
I am convinced the only reason that Norway and Japan keep hunting whales is because everyone tells them to stop, and they are determined to act like petulant teenagers.
Good to know that there's someone out there who knows more about nation's reasons for a policy than the people themselves do.
as I am doing my background reading on protection of endangered species, I notice that the world's efforts are disproportionately focused upon nine animal groups: whales, rhinos, gorillas, pandas, tigers, elephants, turtles, sharks and polar bears. All can be loosely characterised as "charismatic mega fauna". Polar bears aren't even really in any serious danger, although they do look cuddly.
So, much like being born in California: if you are going to be an endangered species, you better hope that you are good looking. Otherwise nobody seems to give a sh** about you.
Bin-go. And "whale" isn't a species, no more than "bear" or "turtle" is. In fact, even less. While "bear" is a family of species, "whale" is an order (like "even-toed ungulates", an order which includes pigs, hippopotamus, camels, giraffe, deer, antelope, cattle, sheep and goats). It's a shame that even the WWF can't seem to understand that:
https://worldwildlife.org/species/directory?direction=desc&sort=extinction_status
Short and to the point:
Some species (e.g. whales, bears or turtles) are endangered and should be protected.
Some species (e.g. whales, bears or turtles) aren't, and I personally see no problem whatsoever in harvesting in a sustainable manner, as long as the carcass is used for something sensible. Nor culling, if that should be necessary.
And no wild animals should be captured, incarcerated and put on display for the purpose of amusement. For most fairly intelligent wild animals (e.g. the orca), that'd be close to torture.