Sports from the past week.

Past sports article for the week of 9/28/05

Whaling to Become Sport
By, Grey Sports

What may be the latest and most radical move to encourage the world to accept whaling as any sort of legitimate enterprise Japan and Norway are dumping the science angle and are moving more towards a sporting veneer.
Naturally there is a great deal of opposition to this idea, environmental groups consider this to be another, though far more inventive attempt to circumvent international law and international will.
Japan and Norway are naturally trying to allay fears that this is another attempt to increase the number of whales they take from the sea to sell to chefs.
As a part of their moves to convince everyone that this could be a viable sport they are issuing colorful uniforms, organizing whaling teams and inviting other nations to join them, ranking whales in order to give them a system of points value and inviting numerous sponsors.
The initial response from most major companies has been far from encouraging for the future of this idea, as most corporations do not want to be associated with such an unpopular enterprise, sport or not.
However initial environmentalist responses have counteracted this to a certain extent. Several groups, notably lacking the prominent Greenpeace, have stated their intentions to constantly tail and film the whaling ships. Whilst this could prove to be an embarrassment to crews and nations, this has encouraged some sponsors to act upon the offer to have their names plastered upon great big ships.
It’s like they say, there’s no such thing as bad publicity.
However without a major international television network willing to get in on the deal there is little hope of the sport version of whaling gaining any sort of longevity, which would be one major stumbling block to legitimizing the event as a sport.
The party line from Japan and Norway both is that this is nothing more than a natural extension of a normal business practice, attempting to make use of every aspect of an enterprise to make profit. This continues from the Japanese and Norse idea that whaling is in fact a normal endeavor that should not be made illegal and should in fact be allowed to progress unmonitored.
So far no one is buying the notion that whaling is normal and acceptable or that this is a natural business enterprise.
Unfortunately Fox has gotten involved.
While not supporting the notion of whaling in any form Fox is willing to turn the hunting of other large animals into a televisable sport.
So far no offer or deal has been made, though this encourages Japan as it could lead to the legitimization of a Whaling sport.
Fox has also tabled the idea of arming the whales with harpoons or explosives to provide an added edge of competition, citing the arming of deer and rabbits as improving the image of hunting as a sport.
In the mean time preparations are being made for a marathon of protesting, TV appearances and more than a few attempts to mind meld with whales.