Picture the scene - the Harpoon is loaded, the crew are excited at the prospect of killing the next whale that surfaces, when up pops Tazer Whale. Tazer Whale is a manned submersible that looks exactly like the real mammal, enough in fact to fool any whaling crew into launching their deadly harpoon. The Harpoon streaks out striking the armoured body of Tazer Whale, and in so doing activating the Tazer itself. This works the exact opposite way round to the conventional tazer, by transmitting a massive charge back to the whaling ship, frying all its electronics and leaving it dead in the water instead of the whale.
-- xenzag, Oct 14 2005

I think they stopped using harpoons around the late 1890's.

//frying all its electronics and leaving it dead in the water// along with all other marine life within of a kilometer.

The Tazer Tuna. (+)
-- jellydoughnut, Oct 14 2005


Maybe you might check this site... A PAINFUL DEATH In this case, if a whale is not killed by the impact of the exploding harpoon,an electric shock is passed through the whale in an effort to kill it. ... www.highnorth.no/ Library/Ethics/a-pa-de.htm
-- xenzag, Oct 14 2005


[jellydoughnut] No, "they" stopped using _hand_ harpoons a long time ago, but whalers still use harpoons, fired from a cannon and frequently with grenade warheads to ensure a kill.
-- coprocephalous, Oct 14 2005



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