I realize that for certain groups, my thoughts won’t be terribly pc, but I have to make them anyway. I’m not against hunting, however, I do worry about the long-term logistics of the shrinking environment, both in the water and out of it. Due to development and pollution, a lot of natural habitat has been lost in the past few centuries. This means that the population of fish has crashed, and scientists know it. Most know about the plight of whales. We have stressed the ocean beyond its limits, and those that live in it are dying off and disappearing. How many whales do you need alive in order to have a healthy, genetically speaking, population? This of course applies to many of the species under duress out there. We decide what a healthy population is according to convenience, as long as we have enough of them to eat, and they don’t take up too much space on the land.

I mourn this rare whale that may have lived over one hundred years.

• Very Old Whale