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Japanese Mission to Kill, Study 950 Whales Decried
By Blaine Harden
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, November 22, 2007; Page A33
TOKYO, Nov. 21 -- The Japanese whaling fleet is sailing south this week to kill about 950 whales in Antarctic waters, despite appeals from the United States, the European Union, Australia and New Zealand to call off the hunt.
What has particularly alarmed anti-whaling countries and environmental groups is Japan's plan, in the name of "research," to kill as many as 50 humpback whales.
It would be the first such hunt since 1966, when a worldwide moratorium was imposed to protect humpbacks, slow swimmers whose numbers were reduced by about 90 percent by overhunting.
Humpbacks have since bounced back to about a third of their pre-whaling population, although they remain listed as endangered under U.S. law and are considered vulnerable by the World Conservation Union.
Japan's Fisheries Agency says it needs to kill the humpbacks (along with 850 minke and 50 fin whales) to make a thorough scientific study of their sustainability, as well as to assess their overall health, diet and the degree to which their internal organs have accumulated heavy metals and other pollutants.
"You cannot get this information by scratching the skin," said Joji Morishita, director of international negotiations for the Fisheries Agency and an alternate on the International Whaling Commission.
The commission's 1986 global ban on commercial whaling grants an exception for scientific hunts. Departing Sunday, four Japanese vessels sailed through that loophole.
"It would be better if the Japanese stayed home and didn't come down under the guise, the deception, the claim that it is scientific whaling -- when they want to take a thousand whales," New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said Monday. Japanese vessels have hunted whales, primarily minkes, in previous years using this loophole.
When scientists here finish their research, whaling commission regulations require that leftover whale meat be sold. Proceeds from the sales defray about 90 percent of the cost of mounting the hunt, according to the Fisheries Agency.
Consumption of whale meat in Japan has fallen sharply in the past two decades, mostly because of the commercial whaling ban, although coastal hunts for smaller whales continue. They do not come under the control of the whaling commission.
Keep up the Whining Bush Administration..... Go cry me a river...
With the resurgence of Russia, the continued growth of China and Venezuela and Iran.... all giving the big FU to the USA....I'm loving it...
CK
By Blaine Harden
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, November 22, 2007; Page A33
TOKYO, Nov. 21 -- The Japanese whaling fleet is sailing south this week to kill about 950 whales in Antarctic waters, despite appeals from the United States, the European Union, Australia and New Zealand to call off the hunt.
What has particularly alarmed anti-whaling countries and environmental groups is Japan's plan, in the name of "research," to kill as many as 50 humpback whales.
It would be the first such hunt since 1966, when a worldwide moratorium was imposed to protect humpbacks, slow swimmers whose numbers were reduced by about 90 percent by overhunting.
Humpbacks have since bounced back to about a third of their pre-whaling population, although they remain listed as endangered under U.S. law and are considered vulnerable by the World Conservation Union.
Japan's Fisheries Agency says it needs to kill the humpbacks (along with 850 minke and 50 fin whales) to make a thorough scientific study of their sustainability, as well as to assess their overall health, diet and the degree to which their internal organs have accumulated heavy metals and other pollutants.
"You cannot get this information by scratching the skin," said Joji Morishita, director of international negotiations for the Fisheries Agency and an alternate on the International Whaling Commission.
The commission's 1986 global ban on commercial whaling grants an exception for scientific hunts. Departing Sunday, four Japanese vessels sailed through that loophole.
"It would be better if the Japanese stayed home and didn't come down under the guise, the deception, the claim that it is scientific whaling -- when they want to take a thousand whales," New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said Monday. Japanese vessels have hunted whales, primarily minkes, in previous years using this loophole.
When scientists here finish their research, whaling commission regulations require that leftover whale meat be sold. Proceeds from the sales defray about 90 percent of the cost of mounting the hunt, according to the Fisheries Agency.
Consumption of whale meat in Japan has fallen sharply in the past two decades, mostly because of the commercial whaling ban, although coastal hunts for smaller whales continue. They do not come under the control of the whaling commission.
Keep up the Whining Bush Administration..... Go cry me a river...
With the resurgence of Russia, the continued growth of China and Venezuela and Iran.... all giving the big FU to the USA....I'm loving it...
CK
