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Greenpeace activists attempt to disrupt Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean. © Greenpeace/Kate Davison
Enlarge imageEvery year, over 300,000 whales and dolphins die caught in fishing nets.
Even in the Southern Ocean Whales Sanctuary, whales still are not safe. Once in Antarctic waters, whales face the most unnecessary threat – whaling.
Every year the Fisheries Agency of Japan (FAJ) sends a fleet of whaling ships to the Antarctic to hunt whales under the guise of “scientific research”. For the third year running, these fleets aim to hunt almost 1,000 minke whales this year. They also plan to kill 50 threatened humpback whales and 50 endangered fin whales.
The hunted whales end up on supermarket shelves in Japan, even though few Japanese eat whale meat anymore.
The International Whaling Commission has banned commercial whaling, labelled the FAJ’s "research" needless and urged the Japanese government to stop.
However, the hunt still continues.
The Great Whale Trail project will contribute to real scientific efforts without killing whales.
To ensure the whaling fleet cannot locate the whales through our maps, the whales’ location posted on this website are delayed.
In addition to justify its whaling as "science", the FAJ fleet is obliged to follow strict pre-determined search patterns or transects when they hunt whales. The FAJ claims this shows that they are doing random population sampling. Any deviation for a single whale or large groups would automatically negate their so-called "scientific" programme.
Even in the Southern Ocean Whales Sanctuary, whales still are not safe. Once in Antarctic waters, whales face the most unnecessary threat – whaling.
Japanese whaling
Every year the Fisheries Agency of Japan (FAJ) sends a fleet of whaling ships to the Antarctic to hunt whales under the guise of “scientific research”. For the third year running, these fleets aim to hunt almost 1,000 minke whales this year. They also plan to kill 50 threatened humpback whales and 50 endangered fin whales.
The hunted whales end up on supermarket shelves in Japan, even though few Japanese eat whale meat anymore.
The International Whaling Commission has banned commercial whaling, labelled the FAJ’s "research" needless and urged the Japanese government to stop.
However, the hunt still continues.
The Great Whale Trail project will contribute to real scientific efforts without killing whales.
To ensure the whaling fleet cannot locate the whales through our maps, the whales’ location posted on this website are delayed.
In addition to justify its whaling as "science", the FAJ fleet is obliged to follow strict pre-determined search patterns or transects when they hunt whales. The FAJ claims this shows that they are doing random population sampling. Any deviation for a single whale or large groups would automatically negate their so-called "scientific" programme.
