Yahoo News 21 Dec 07;
Japan has dropped its plan to kill humpback whales in Antarctic waters after strong protests led by Australia, Japanese public broadcaster NHK said Friday.
An official at Japan's Fisheries Agency declined all comment on the report, which came hours after Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura warned that the growing row with Australia would be difficult to resolve.
NHK television, quoting unnamed officials, said Japan "has decided to delist humpbacks from the whaling list for now due to concern about the negative impact on relations with Australia."
Japan had planned to harpoon 50 humpback whales in its current expedition to Antarctica, marking the first time that Japan would hunt the animal beloved by whale-watchers since the 1960s.
Japan had earlier denied remarks by Thomas Schieffer, the US ambassador to Tokyo, who said Wednesday that Japan had agreed in diplomatic discussions to stand down from its plan to kill humpbacks.
Australia's new left-leaning government earlier this week stepped up the case against Japan's whaling, saying it would deploy an unarmed customs ship and a surveillance aircraft to monitor the hunt.
Humpback whales, protected under a 1966 worldwide moratorium after years of overhunting, are renowned for their complex songs and acrobatic displays.
The humpbacks' slow progression along Australia's coast to breed has turned into a major tourist attraction bringing 1.5 million whale watchers a year.
Defying warnings from Australia and other Western nations, Japan's fleet set off last month for Antarctica on its largest ever expedition with a mission to kill 1,000 whales, most of them of the small minke variety.
Japan says whaling is part of its culture, although critics point out that Japanese today eat little whale compared with other meats.
Komura, the foreign minister, earlier said he hoped to speak with his Australian counterpart Stephen Smith about the growing row but doubted he would make much headway.
"Japan has its own culture as much as Australia does and since (whaling) involves public sentiment, it's not an issue we can resolve by convincing each other using logic," Komura told reporters.
"That's why it's hard," he said.
"Japan is conducting whaling research in line with international agreements so that's that. We have our own ideas and so does Australia," Komura said.
Japan carries out the hunt using a loophole in a 1986 global moratorium on commercial whaling that allows "lethal research" on the giant mammals. Only Norway and Iceland defy the moratorium outright.
Environmental movement Greenpeace and the militant splinter group Sea Shepherd have each sent a ship to Antarctic waters to try to disrupt Japan's whaling.
During the last Antarctic hunt, Sea Shepherd activists threw acid onto the Japanese mother ship in a bid to disrupt the hunt, leading Tokyo to brand the environmentalists as "terrorists."
Japan removes humpback whales from Antarctic hunt
Reuters 21 Dec 07;
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's whaling fleet in the Antarctic will avoid killing humpback whales for now, but will press on with plans to catch about 1,000 other whales by early in the new year, a government official said on Friday.
The move follows an announcement by Australia on Wednesday that it would send a fisheries patrol ship to gather evidence for a possible international court challenge to halt Japan's yearly slaughter.
"Japan has decided not to catch humpback whales for one year or two," government spokesman Nobutaka Machimura told reporters.
"Japan's relations with Australia could improve, but it depends on how it will see our decision," Machimura said.
(Reporting by Chisa Fujioka and Teruaki Ueno, Editing by Michael Watson)
Japan drops humpback whale hunt
BBC News 21 Dec 07;
A controversial Japanese mission to hunt humpback whales in the Antarctic has been temporarily abandoned, a top government official says.
Nobutaka Machimura said the humpback hunt would not go ahead - although the fleet will still hunt about 1,000 other whales in the area.
The BBC's Chris Hogg, in Tokyo, says Japan is now unlikely to chase the humpbacks for at least a year.
The move comes after pressure from the International Whaling Commission (IWC).
Japan is regularly condemned for its annual whaling missions.
But this year's Antarctic expedition was particularly controversial because, in addition to 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales, the fleet intended to kill up to 50 humpbacks.
It was the first time Japan had targeted the humpbacks since a moratorium was introduced in the mid-1960s - when the species had been hunted almost to extinction.
Australia criticism
Japan says whaling is necessary for scientific research, but other countries say the same goals could be achieved using non-lethal techniques.
"Japan has decided not to catch humpback whales for one year or two," Mr Machimura told reporters.
He said the decision had been reached after a meeting with the IWC.
Mr Machimura said the IWC had not been "functioning normally", claiming that the commission had been distorted by ideology.
He said Japan would suspend the humpback whale hunt while the IWC held talks on "normalising" its functions.
Australia had been particularly critical of the humpback hunt, and Foreign Minister Stephen Smith welcomed Japan's decision.
But he reiterated Canberra's view that there was no credible reason for Japan to hunt any species of whale, and pledged to keep up diplomatic efforts to prevent further missions.
