Japanese whaling fleet leaves for annual hunt
A fleet of six Japanese whalers left port today for their annual hunt in the Antarctic, where they hope to kill 860 whales for a controversial research programme.
The ships, led by the 8,030-tonne Nisshin Maru, set sail from the southern Japanese port of Shimonoseki.
Officials say the fleet has a target of killing 850 minke whales and 10 fin whales before returning to Japan in April. Minke, a relatively small species, are fairly plentiful in the Antarctic. The larger fin whales are more rare.
Japan began conducting the annual research hunts after the International Whaling Commission (IWC) imposed a global ban on commercial whaling in 1986.
Japanese officials claim the programme is needed to gauge whale populations and to study their breeding and feeding habits. Meat from the catch is sold commercially and the proceeds fund future research.
The programme is allowed by the IWC, which uses its data, but many environmental groups claim it is a pretext for keeping whale meat on the market.
They note that canned or frozen whale can be found in most large supermarkets, but is no longer an important part of the Japanese diet.
Hideki Moronuki of the whaling division at Japan’s Fisheries Agency said whaling has become politicised and that criticism of Japan’s research programme was off-base.
Moronuki also said that roughly half the IWC members at its most recent meeting, held in June, supported the restart of whaling.
“The idea 20 years ago was to temporarily halt commercial whaling because there was a lack of data,” he said. “Our goal is the sustainable management of whale resources based on scientific data.”
The programme has many vocal opponents.
Australia’s environment minister Ian Campbell urged Japan to abandon it immediately.
“This is not science. These are commercial numbers of whales,” the Australian Associated Press quoted him as saying. “This is a shameless charade because, despite the slaughter of hundreds of whales by Japan, we have yet to see any viable scientific results.”
The AAP report said four protest ships, two each from environmental activist groups Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd, were planning to pursue the fleet as they did last year, when several clashes resulted.
Greenpeace Japan has tried to get the Fisheries Agency to stop the annual hunts, but held no demonstrations as the ships left today, according to spokesman Junichi Sato.
The Japanese government plans to catch 1,070 minke whales in 2006, as well as a total of 170 Bryde’s, sei, sperm and fin whales.
Japan has already caught 35 whales this year off the coast of its northern main island of Hokkaido in a 42-day expedition.
That catch was well below the 60 allowed under the coastal programme, which, like the Antarctic hunts, is authorised by the IWC.
The small catch was blamed on bad weather.
