Tokyo strikes back with criticism of dugong hunt

Greg Roberts, The Australian 2 Apr 08;

THE spat between Japan and Australia over whaling has intensified, with the Japanese attacking Canberra's support for the harvesting of dugongs by indigenous hunters.

The Japanese will highlight the killing of dugongs by Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders in a submission to the International Whaling Commission for its meeting in June in the Chilean capital of Santiago.

Islander leaders agreed yesterday that too many dugongs were being taken for traditional food.

Australia has 80 per cent of the estimated world dugong population of 100,000.

The Japanese planned to slaughter 985 minke whales last summer in Antarctic waters, ostensibly for scientific research, but harassment by anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd and monitoring by an Australian patrol vessel is believed to have reduced the kill by as much as half.

The number of minke whales killed annually by the Japanese is similar to the number of dugongs killed each year in the Torres Strait, home to 20 per cent of Australia's dugongs.

The New Zealand-based spokesman for Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research, Glenn Inwood, said Australia was being hypocritical. "Japan subscribes to the international principle of sustainable utilisation," he said. "The Australian Government rejects all lethal uses of whales and yet supports sustainable utilisation in its own national hunting of the dugong."

Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett said there was no analogy between Japanese whaling and the killing of dugongs.

"There is no comparison between industrial commercial whaling, which targets endangered and vulnerable whales in the name of science, and the subsistence hunting of dugongs by indigenous Australians," he said.

He said the federal Government was actively engaged in several programs to protect dugongs.

Torres Shire Deputy Mayor Allan Ketchell said dugongs were an important traditional food for Islanders, but because there were no limits and the sea mammals were easy to catch with motorised boats, too many were being killed.

"Sometimes people go out and spear five or six when one or two a month should be enough," he said.

Mr Ketchell said Islander councils hoped to introduce a permit system to limit dugong catches.