Feature story - 15 November, 2006
This year the Japanese fleet will again try to kill 935 minke and 10 fin whales off the coast of Antarctica in what the whalers are calling a "feasibility study" for expanded "research" whaling.
The Japanese Fisheries Agency whaling fleet leaves Shimonoseki, Japan bound for the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary with plans to harpoon 935 minke whales and 10 endangered fin whales.
Earlier this year, Japan's whalers announced to the
International Whaling Commission meeting that its previous
"feasibility study" was a "complete success".
"If the last feasibility study was so successful, then why do
they need another one?" said John Frizell, Greenpeace International
Ocean Campaigner. "This programme is just a flimsy excuse to push
for a resumption of commercial whaling, despite having no market
needs in Japan."
Not really about science
The International Whaling Commission (IWC) agreed to a
moratorium on commercial whaling that came into effect in 1986. In
1987, Japan began its lethal "research" programme, and continues to
sell the result of this "research" in shops and restaurants.
"To claim this whaling program is research is an insult to
science and to the Japanese people," said Junichi Sato, Greenpeace
Japan Oceans Campaign Project Manager.
Sato went on to explain, "This 'research' project is being
pursued by small numbers of politicians and bureaucrats simply to
maintain their vested interests in one of the most outdated
industries in Japan and at the expenses of Japanese taxpayers'
money".
Little support in Japan, strong opposition outside of it
An opinion poll in Japan carried out in June 2006 by the Gallup
affiliate, the Nippon Research Centre, showed that 95% of Japanese
never or rarely eat whale meat and more than 70 percent of Japanese
do NOT support whaling in the Southern Ocean.
Lack of support within Japan is mirrored by widespread
condemnation from the world community.
"This is not science - these are commercial numbers of whales,"
Australia's Environment Minister Ian Campbell was recently quoted
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."
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