Dr. Tim Flannery is an Australian mammalogist, author, and director of the South Australian Museum. He believes that management of cetaceans should be carried out with common sense and a command of the biological facts, rather than through the propagation of what he refers to as "environmental lies" about the many species that make up those animals known to the lay public as whales. His opinions and a review of his work are outlined in the Sydney Morning Herald, March 29, 2003, by writer James Woodford; "Eat whale…and save the planet".

Dr.Flannery uses one of the green "whale savers'" own arguments, that of alleged whale high intelligence, to dispute the green case for a total ban on whale hunting and whale use. Flannery asserts that toothed cetaceans such as Orcas and dolphins, those hunters of fin fish, squid and certain small marine mammals, are comparatively intelligent creatures, while he characterizes the large baleen filter feeders as "tiny brained" examples of cetacea. Flannery compares the toothed whales to wolves or dogs, quite intelligent beings, and the filter feeders to sheep, which are not considered by anyone to be mental giants. His point is that there is great diversity among "whales", and if Australians eat sheep, they should not object to sustainable harvest of certain baleen whales.

Dr. Flannery has observed those arguments for total whale protection that are based on green cultural myths, and he believes "environmental logic" might better be applied in making decisions about whale use. He has decided that it is not ethically questionable to harvest those whales that are no more sentient than are sheep. We think this argument is appropriate as far as it goes, and we applaud his stance. His paper, "Beautiful Lies" was published in Australia's Quarterly Essay, in April 2003.

Interestingly, the green lobby considers the Flannery argument potentially threatening, because a Humane Society International spokesperson has quipped that it has "friends" only in Japan, Norway and Iceland. We believe HSI is wrong about this, because more and more people around the world are questioning the classic green myths about "The Whales" and are beginning to advocate the scientifically based, sustainable use of this class of animals. Although we believe that principles of sustainability should be applied in cetacean management decision making, rather than subjective comparisons of whale intelligence, Dr. Flannery's argument has considerable merit and should be considered worthwhile as one valid cultural perspective.