Japan's hunts threaten some dolphins and whales with extinction, says EIA

Japan relying on out-of-date data for hunts of small cetaceans, putting some species of whales, dolphins and porpoises at risk, warns Environmental Investigation Agency
Associated Press theguardian.com 31 Nov 13;

Japan's hunts of smaller whales, dolphins and porpoises threaten some species with extinction, an environmental group said on Thursday.

Catch quotas are based on data collected as much as 20 years ago and some species have been overhunted beyond the point of recovery, the Environmental Investigation Agency said in its report.

The lucrative market in live catches for aquariums, especially in China, poses another risk, the report said. Live animals can sell for between $8,400 and $98,000, sometimes more than the roughly $50,000 from sales of meat for a single bottlenose dolphin.

Japan set its catch limit for small cetaceans at 16,655 in 2013, far below the 30,000 caught annually before limits were set in 1993 but still the largest hunt in the world.

Japan's Fisheries Agency would not comment on the EIA report because it has not seen it. Japan defends its coastal whaling as a longstanding tradition, source of livelihood and as necessary for scientific research.

The London-based independent conservation group said Japan is failing to observe its stated goal of sustainability and urged the country to phase out the hunts over the next decade.

"The government has a responsibility to restore and maintain cetacean species at their former levels," said Jennifer Lonsdale, a founding director of the EIA.

The small cetaceans are among a number of species facing severe declines in Japan. They include Japanese eels, a delicacy usually served roasted with a savoury sauce over rice, and torafugu, or puffer fish.

The status of each species varies, depending on its range and hunting practices. Catch limits for Dall's porpoises are 4.7-4.8 times higher than the safe threshold, the report said.

For the striped dolphin, once the mainstay of the industry but now endangered and disappearing from some areas, catches have dropped from over 1,800 in the 1980s to about 100.

That is still four times the sustainable limit, the report said. It urged that the government update its data on the abundance of it and other species and stop transferring quotas from already overfished areas to areas that exceed their quotas.

Under a 1946 treaty regulating whaling, nations can grant permits to kill whales for scientific research.

In July, Japan defended its annual harpooning of hundreds of whales in the icy seas around Antarctica, insisting the hunt is legal because it gathers valuable scientific data that could pave the way to a resumption of sustainable whaling in the future.

Australia has appealed to the international court of justice to have the whaling outlawed.

Japan's coastal hunts for small cetaceans not sustainable, says report
Pursuit of whale, dolphin and porpoise species should be phased out, says Environmental Investigation Agency
Justin McCurry in Osaka theguardian.com 31 Oct 13;

Some species of whale, dolphin and porpoise could be hunted into extinction unless Japan stops pursuing them in its coastal waters, a new report has warned.

Japan catches almost 17,000 smaller cetaceans off its coast every year – a tradition that its whalers say stretches back centuries.

The coastal hunts, which include the slaughter of dolphins in Taiji, are no longer sustainable and should be phased out over the next 10 years, the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency said in a report launched in Tokyo on Thursday.

"The hunts in Japan's coastal waters specifically target nine small cetacean species, eight of them with government-set catch limits which are clearly unsustainable," said EIA campaigner and report co-author Sarah Baulch.

"For 2013, the catch limits allow the slaughter of 16,655 small cetaceans, but our analysis of available scientific data raises very serious concerns about the sustainability of these hunts."

The EIA estimates that more than 1 million whales, dolphins and porpoises have been killed in Japanese waters in the past 70 years.

The coastal hunt is the biggest of its kind in the world, yet "there is little transparency regarding the methods used to set catch limits and widespread concern that consumers are not informed that the resulting products are toxic with mercury and other contaminants," the conservation group said.

In most cases, Japan's catch limits are based on data collected more than 20 years ago and some species have already been hunted beyond the point where their numbers can recover, the report said.

The current quota is well below the 30,000 killed in Japan every year until limits were introduced in 1993. The coastal hunt is separate from Japan's annual slaughter of bigger whale species in the Antarctic.

The report blames growing demand for dolphins and other small cetaceans from aquariums and sea parks around the world, particularly in China: live dolphins, for example, can fetch between $8,400 and $98,000.

Catch limits for the Dall's porpoise species are 4.7-4.8 times higher than the safe threshold, the report said; catches of the striped dolphin, meanwhile, have dropped from over 1,800 in the 1980s to about 100.

"Despite strong indications of population declines, there appears to be little formal monitoring by the government of Japan," Baulch said.

The EIA also cited the risk to Japanese consumers of eating meat and blubber with methyl mercury levels many times higher than the safe limit.

"Japan's stubborn reluctance to relinquish this archaic industry is not only driving threatened marine species towards extinction, but is endangering the health of its people," said Sakae Hemmi of the Japan-based group Elsa Nature Conservancy.