Japan vows to press ahead with whaling

Channel NewsAsia 16 Nov 07

TOKYO: Japan said Friday it will press ahead with an expanded whaling expedition as activists charged that Tokyo had delayed the hunt to avoid international friction.

Japan plans to kill more than 1,000 whales in the Antarctic Ocean on its annual mission, which has long caused tension with Australia and New Zealand.

Further enraging environmentalists, Japan for the first time plans to catch humpback whales, which are internationally considered a vulnerable species and are popular with whale-watchers.

Japan's Fisheries Agency said its fleet would go ahead with the expedition but said the date will only be announced shortly before for security reasons.

"We will go ahead on the day that we planned," said an official from the whaling division.

The fleet usually leaves in November. Environmental group Greenpeace alleged the hunt was delayed because of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's current visit to the United States.

The whaling programme "is a sham and a source of diplomatic tension between Japan and countries that support whale conservation, like the United States," said Karli Thomas, leader of Greenpeace's Esperanza which will try to track the whalers.

"Prime Minister Fukuda should not just delay the whaling fleet's departure to avoid political embarrassment abroad, he should cancel Japan's entire whaling programme and decommission the vessels to end the domestic scandal of wasting Japanese taxpayers' money," Thomas said in a statement.

The whaling official denied the charges, saying: "I don't think this has anything to do with Mr Fukuda visiting the US."

Japan has used a loophole in the two-decade international moratorium on commercial whaling that allows the killing of whales for research.

Japan makes no secret that the meat ends up on Japanese dinner plates and has led an international campaign to resume outright whaling, accusing Western nations of cultural imperialism. - AFP/ac

Japanese fleet to hunt humpback whales
Hiroko Tabuchi, Associated Press, Yahoo News 17 Nov 07;

Humpback whales are in the cross-hairs again. Japan's whaling fleet will leave port soon for the South Pacific with orders to kill up to 50 humpbacks — the first known large-scale hunt for the whales since a 1963 moratorium put them under international protection.

The Fisheries Agency has refused to release the fleet's departure date. But the lead whaling ship's operator, Kyodo Senpaku Ltd., said the fleet was scheduled to set sail from the southern city of Shimonoseki on Sunday.

The ships, led by the 8,030-ton Nisshin Maru, will embark on their largest scientific whale hunt in the South Pacific. Besides humpbacks, they will take up to 935 Antarctic minke whales and up to 50 fin whales.

But it is Tokyo's plan to hunt the humpback — a favorite among whale-watchers for its distinctive knobby head, intelligence and out-of-the-water acrobatics — that has triggered condemnation from environmentalists.

"These whales don't have to die," said Junichi Sato, a Greenpeace spokesman. "Humpbacks are very sensitive and live in close-knit pods. So even one death can be extremely damaging."

Humpback whales were hunted to near-extinction four decades ago. But they have been off-limits to hunting since 1963, except for a small number caught under a subsistence whaling program by Greenland and the Caribbean nation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Last year, they caught one humpback each, according to the International Whaling Commission.

The former Soviet Union also hunted humpbacks until 1973, in defiance of the ban, though it is disputed how many they killed.

Scientists say humpback whales are complex creatures that communicate through long "songs." Measuring 40-48 feet long and weighing 25-40 tons, they are extremely acrobatic, often throwing themselves out of the water, swimming on their backs with both flippers in the air, or slapping the water with their tail or flippers.

The American Cetacean Society estimates the global humpback population at 30,000-40,000, about a third of levels seen before modern whaling. The species is listed as "vulnerable" by the World Conservation Union.

But Japanese fisheries officials insist both humpback and fin populations — estimated at up to 60,000 — are back to sustainable levels.

"Humpback whales in our research area are rapidly recovering," said Hideki Moronuki, whaling chief at the Fisheries Agency. "Taking 50 humpbacks from a population of tens of thousands will have no significant impact whatsoever."

Moronuki says killing whales allows marine biologists to study their internal organs. Ovaries provide vital clues to reproductive systems, earwax indicates age, and stomach contents reveal eating habits, he said.

Meat from Japan's scientific catch is sold commercially, as permitted by the IWC, but Japanese officials deny that profit is a goal.

Japan also argues that whaling is a Japanese tradition dating to the early 1600s, and has pushed unsuccessfully at the IWC to reverse the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling.

Environmentalists criticize Japan's research program as a pretext for keeping the whaling industry alive, and have long campaigned for an end to the winter catch in the Southern Ocean and a mission in the North Pacific that kills about 100 minke whales a year.

Scientists note that humpbacks migrate to the southern seas from breeding grounds around the world.

"Some breeding grounds are not recovering to the same extent as others," said Ken Findlay, a whale biologist at the University of Cape Town who has studied the mammals for nearly two decades. "While the catch may be small, we're not sure where they come from. That's a real concern," he said.

Environmentalists also are critical of the methods used by Japan's fleet to harpoon the whales. Ships sometimes chase wounded whales for hours, Findlay said.

The new hunt is certain to renew Japan's angry standoff with anti-whaling forces. Greenpeace and the animal rights activist group Sea Shepherd have said they will track Japan's hunt in the South Pacific.

Japan accuses activists of "environmental terrorism." After the last Antarctic hunt, the government released video of protesters launching smoke canisters from a Sea Shepherd ship and dropping ropes and nets to entangle the Japanese ships' propellers.

"We call them terrorists because they engage in blatant terrorism," Moronuki said. "We don't want violence. ... All Japan wants is to find a sustainable way to hunt a very precious marine resource."

Japan to commence whaling mission
BBC News 17 Nov 07

Japan has confirmed that it will carry out its largest whaling programme in the South Pacific.

The mission, expected to draw strong protests from environmentalists, will depart on Sunday and breaks a 44-year moratorium on hunting humpback whales.

Japan's fisheries ministry said the fleet had instructions to kill up to 1,000 whales, including 50 humpbacks.

Japan was forced to abandon commercial whaling in 1986, but has since carried out whaling for "scientific research".

Four whaling ships, including the lead craft Nisshin Maru, will depart from the southern port of Shimonoseki.

The 239-man mission plans to kill more than 900 minke whales as well as fin whales and humpbacks, in a South Pacific whale hunt that will run until mid-April.

The 8,000 metric tonne Nisshin Maru was crippled by a fire on a whaling mission in the Antarctic in March. One crew member was killed.

A Greenpeace campaign ship will be following the Japanese fleet.

Sensitive mammals

Tokyo's plan to target the humpback - which was hunted to near extinction four decades ago - has drawn condemnation from environmentalists.

"Humpbacks are very sensitive and live in close-knit pods. So even one death can be extremely damaging," Greenpeace spokesman Junichi Sato said.

Japanese fisheries officials insist both humpback and fin populations are back to sustainable levels.

"Humpback whales in our research area are rapidly recovering," fisheries spokesman Hideki Moronuki said.

"Taking 50 humpbacks from a population of tens of thousands will have no significant impact whatsoever," he said.

Mr Moronuki said killing whales allows marine biologists to study their internal organs.

Meat from Japan's scientific catch is sold commercially but Japanese officials deny that the mission plans to make a profit.

Japan argues that whaling is an ancient Japanese tradition, and has pushed unsuccessfully at the International Whaling Commission to reverse the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling.

Environmentalists say Japan's research programme is a pretext for keeping the whaling industry alive.

As Japan sets out on whale hunt, eco-warriors vow to 'hunt the whalers'
Today Online 19 Nov 07

TOKYO — A defiant Japan yesterday embarked on its largest whaling expedition in decades, targeting protected humpbacks for the first time since the 1960s despite international opposition.

Japan argues that whale populations have recovered enough to allow a managed catch, but militant environmentalists have vowed in turn to "hunt the whalers" to save the still-vulnerable humpbacks.

Bid farewell in a festive ceremony in the southern port of Shimonoseki, a fleet of six vessels headed for the waters off Antarctica, resuming a hunt that was cut short by a deadly fire last February that crippled the fleet's mother ship.

"Although we are subjected to vicious blocking tactics by environmental groups, we have to continue this into the future," team leader Hajima Ishikawa was quoted by Kyodo News as saying.

Meanwhile, the environmental movement Greenpeace said its ship Esperanza is waiting outside Japanese coastal waters and will track the whalers, shooting video footage to show the public.

"The threatened humpbacks targeted by the whalers are part of thriving whale watching industries elsewhere," Greenpeace expedition leader Karli Thomas said in a statement.

Japan kills more than 1,000 whales a year in the Antarctic and Pacific using a loophole in a 1986 International Whaling Commission (IWC) moratorium, which bans commercial whaling but allows catching whales for research.

Only Norway and Iceland defy the moratorium outright.

"Japan's research program is a sham," Mr Thomas told The Associated Press by phone. "We demand that the Japanese government cancel it."

Since the 1986 moratoriumon, Japan has killed almost 10,500 whales, mostly of the minke and Brydes species, under research permits.

Tokyo has argued unsuccessfully for years for the IWC to overturn the moratorium. — AGENCIES


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