Japanese Whaling...

[lovelyjolie]

Japan Blames Protestors for Reduced Whale Hunt

Chisaki Watanabe in Tokyo
Associated Press
April 14, 2008

Violent clashes with animal rights groups combined with fewer whale sightings forced Japan's whaling fleet to head home from Antarctic waters with only 55 percent of its hunting target, the Japanese government said Monday.

Starting tomorrow whalers are to return with 551 minke whales—far less than the original plan to kill up to 935 minkes and 50 fin whales.

Anti-whaling activists had chased whaling ships for much of this season's hunt, blocking their paths and pelting boats with containers of rancid butter, slightly injuring several crew members.

In January two activists from the group Sea Shepherd jumped onto one of the Japanese ships and spent several days in detention on board.

Japanese whalers hunt under an internationally permitted research exemption to the 1986 ban on commercial whaling.

In a statement issued today Japan's fisheries agency said that this season "we did not have enough time for research, because we had to avoid sabotage," referring to the protesters.

Japanese officials also said the fleet spotted fewer minke whales than they had in the same area two years ago. Officials, however, stopped short of concluding there were fewer whales.

"We have to wait for a scientific analysis to determine whether the number is in decline or not," said Shigeki Takaya, a fisheries agency official in charge of whaling.

Research, or Commerce?

Anti-whaling activists cheered the results of their efforts to block the hunt.

But Junichi Sato, whaling project leader for the environmental group Greenpeace, said even the reduced hunt killed too many whales.

"It is still above the 400 or so they caught about three years ago," he said. "So it's a lot compared with several years ago."

Although it is conducted in the name of research, Japan's hunt provides supermarkets and upscale restaurants with the leftover whale meat.

Critics therefore charge that the country's whaling under the research exemption is just commercial whaling in disguise and demand it be stopped.

Sir Geoffrey Palmer, New Zealand's representative to the International Whaling Commission (IWC), last month called scientific whaling a "blank check."

"Any government can engage in it and can take an unlimited number of whales. That makes an absurdity of the whole treaty," he told National Geographic News.

The program has come under increasing international pressure in recent years as Japan has expanded its catch.

For example, this season the fleet had planned to kill 50 endangered humpback whales in the Antarctic for the first time in decades. Japan abandoned that plan last December in the face of protests by the United States and other governments.

And despite reported efforts to recruit poorer nations to back its position in the IWC, Japan has so far failed to win enough votes to have the commission strike down the commercial whaling ban.

Japan has long argued that the whaling ban should only apply to endangered species.

It also accuses the West of hypocrisy for criticizing current Japanese whaling after American and European whalers nearly wiped out the marine mammals in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The Japanese have a long history hunting whales, and whale meat was widely eaten in the lean years after World War II.

The meat has plunged in popularity in today's prosperous Japan and is only eaten regularly in some small coastal communities.

After a special IWC meeting last month, New Zealand's Palmer had hinted that Japan may be ready to deal, giving up whaling in the Southern Hemisphere in exchange for limited hunts near these coastal regions.

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[tropical_shark]

Japan's whaling fleet sets out for Antarctic
TOKYO (Reuters) - The main ship in Japan's whaling fleet set out for the Antarctic on Monday for its first hunt in the region since limping home with just over half its planned catch in April following clashes with militant anti-whaling activists, environmentalist group Greenpeace said.

The Nisshin Maru set out from Innoshima in western Japan, Greenpeace said, part of a plan to take about 850 minke whales and 50 fin whales. Last year six ships took part in the hunt.

The vessel's movements will be followed by a ship belonging to Sea Shepherd, an anti-whaling group that skirmished repeatedly with the fleet at sea last year in an attempt to halt the hunt.

Earlier on Monday, Australia urged Japan to abandon its yearly hunt, launching its own scientific whaling study in the Southern Ocean to prove it was not necessary to kill the ocean mammals to study them.

"Modern-day research uses genetic and molecular techniques as well as satellite tags, acoustic methods and aerial surveys rather than grenade-tipped harpoons," Australian Environment Minister Peter Garrett told reporters in Canberra.

"Australia does not believe that we need to kill whales to understand them," Garrett said.

A Japanese Fisheries Agency official last week denied a newspaper report that Tokyo would cut by 20 percent the number of whales it planned to hunt due to anti-whaling protests.

But the official said that a moratorium on catching humpback whales would stay in place.

"Waved off only by the crew's families and whaling officials, the factory ship Nisshin Maru left Innoshima with no fanfare," Greenpeace said in a statement.

"Constant pressure on Japan's whaling industry by both Greenpeace and the international community has reduced the fleet to sneaking out of port in a fog of crisis and scandal, desperate to avoid attention," the statement quoted Sara Holden, Greenpeace International Whales Coordinator, as saying.

Japanese whaling officials declined to confirm the ship's departure, citing safety considerations, but a worker at a local hotel said about 10 people connected with the the Institute of Cetacean Research and whalers' families had stayed overnight.

DIPLOMATIC COMPLAINTS

Last season's row over whaling threatened to escalate when two of the group's members boarded a Japanese whaling ship without permission and were temporarily held by its crew.

The incident led to a string of diplomatic complaints between Japan and Australia, which has been a vocal critic of the whaling programme.

Canberra last year sent a customs and fisheries icebreaker to shadow anti-whaling activists and the Japanese fleet, gathering photo evidence of the yearly research hunt for a possible international legal case against Tokyo.

Australia's Garrett said on Monday a legal case was still under consideration, but no decision yet had been made on whether to send another patrol boat south this Antarctic summer.

Japan's Fisheries Agency blamed Sea Shepherd and a dearth of whale sightings for their catch of only 551 minke whales, compared with a target of 850 minkes and 50 fin whales last season. A plan to target humpback whales for the first time was dropped last year after protests from the United States.

Environmental group Greenpeace has said it will break with its tradition of sending a ship to follow the whalers this season, concentrating instead on a court case involving two of its activists in Japan, who are accused of stealing whalemeat.

The group says it took the meat to expose what it says are corrupt practices in the whaling industry.

Japan, which considers whaling a cultural tradition, abandoned commercial whaling after agreeing to an international whaling moratorium in 1986, but began what it calls a scientific research whaling programme the following year.

Critics say much of the meat ends up on dinner tables.

(Additional reporting by Rob Taylor in Canberra, Isabel Reynolds in Tokyo; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

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[Izzy]

*sigh* Its a battle thats not really ever going to be won - people are far too stubborn.

[David]

I'm reading the book "Wild Blue" by Dan Bortolotti

http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Blue-Natural ... 312383878/

and it's been reviewed by our Director of Marine Mammals, Eric Hoyt, who I agree with when he says:

"Wild Blue proves to be a sweeping tour of all that is, was and hopefully will be, in centuries to come, the blue whale. No aspect is left uncovered, including whaling, management, genetics, acoustics. All are covered in a concise, engaging way. Yet most engaging are the field studies, e.g., splashing around with Richard Sears - the first person to crack the blue whale photo-ID code and the person who has spent more waking hours with living blue whales than anyone.

The key challenge to writing a good whale book is how to deal with the wealth of unpublished material. Whale science is still young and in process. Even scientific papers and reports can be sketchy and dated; thus much of what is known is carried around in the heads of frontline researchers such as Sears, John Calambokidis and others."

Excellent book on our largest whale and the largest animal that has ever lived as well as a great source to help understand the history of whaling and the difficulty in studying even very large marine animals. I recommend it highly for all readers.

[Ghandi]

Cheers Dave, I may have a look at that. Just finished unnatural history of the sea recently- very VERY good book, also covers exploitation and decline of marine mammal exploitation.

http://www.amazon.com/Unnatural-History ... 612&sr=8-1

(yes i keep plugging it- but thats because its excellent)

[Sharkgirl]

Activists vows to protect whales from Japanese

By ROD McGUIRK – 3 days ago

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A radical conservationist said Wednesday he will not shy away from violent confrontation with Japanese whalers, even though his group will be alone in tracking this season's hunt in the remote, ice-strewn Antarctic Ocean.

Environmentalists Greenpeace and the Australian government have ruled out sending ships to shadow the whaling fleet again, and renegade activist Paul Watson said his Sea Shepherd Conservation Society stands alone in defense of the whales.

"Japan's been putting a terrific amount of pressure on everyone. We just haven't buckled," the Canadian told The Associated Press by telephone from the Australian east coast city of Brisbane.

Watson, a Canadian who has boasted about ramming whaling ships to save the marine mammals, said his crew would not use tactics that endanger life in the remote and treacherous southern seas, but that he expected the whalers to be on the offensive. Sea Shepherd activists have disrupted the annual hunt for the past three years, causing economic losses for the fleet, he said.

"They'll most likely be more aggressive toward us this year than last year," Watson said.

Greenpeace, which has criticized Sea Shepherd for its violent confrontations with the whalers in previous years, has said it will focus on lobbying Tokyo rather than sending a ship to document the slaughter and to protect the whales as it did a year ago.

The Australian government sent a ship to monitor the fleet during the last southern summer and to record forensic evidence for potential court action against Japan, but has decided against that tactic this year.

The whaling fleet is expected to center its hunt in the Ross Sea, where New Zealand is responsible for search-and-rescue missions under international law. The New Zealand government has also said it will not track the hunt and warned it would not be able to quickly help any whalers or activists hurt or lost in confrontations at sea.

The Sea Shepherd's ship, the Steve Irwin, and 45-member crew members including Hollywood actress Daryl Hannah, heads from Brisbane toward the Antarctic Ocean on Thursday. The whaling fleet left Japan in secret last month, and Watson said they expect to intercept the hunt in mid-December.

Hannah, whose movies include "Splash" and "Blade Runner," said the whaling industry could be shut down if conservationists worked together and governments enforced anti-whaling laws.

"These guys are the only guys out there actually fighting against illegal hunting," Hannah told reporters at a press conference in Brisbane.

The Japanese are allowed to harvest a quota of whales under a ruling by the International Whaling Commission, as long as the mammals are caught for research, not commercial purposes.

This year the whalers plan to catch up to 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales but no humpbacks, Japanese fisheries officials said.

Sea Shepherd and the whalers blame each other for a collision in February last year that left the Robert Hunter — since renamed the Steve Irwin for the late Australian conservationist — with a 3-foot (1-meter) gash in its stern.

Two Sea Shepherd activists boarded a Japanese harpoon ship in January this year and were held onboard for several days until Australian Customs officers picked them up.

Japanese officials say the activists throw ropes and nets into the water to entangle propellers and lob smoke canisters and rancid butter onto the vessels.

Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... wD94RAQU80

[tropical_shark]

A little out of date but still a little strange!
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Japan imports whale meat

Japan has recently purchased whale meat from Iceland, marking the first such imports in 17 years. The Japanese government approved the purchases in September and some of the meat has been put on the market since clearing customs.


An Icelandic company, by the name of Hyalur hf, claims that it exported over sixty tonnes of fin whale meat to Japan. The fin whale, the second largest whale, is internationally recognised as an endangered species but Japan have said it was not breaking the accord and considered the trade as "a deal between private companies".

A spokesman for Hyalur hf, also said that the recent export consignment was intended to “re-introduce fin meat to Japanese palates”. The whale meat trade is banned under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), but Iceland, Japan and Norway have all registered reservations, as the treaty permits, exempting themselves from the ban.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel peace laureate launched a new global anti-whaling recently, commenting that what makes whaling even worse is the brutality of it all and the suffering that these majestic animals have to endure.

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[tropical_shark]

Again a little out of date but i thought it was interesting!
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Friday, October 31, 2008
Japanese Whaling Supply Ship Found Guilty of Conservation Violations

The Japanese whaling fleet supply ship Oriental Bluebird has been de-flagged and fined by the Panamanian Registry after being found guilty of:

* Using the ship for purposes it was not licensed for (i.e. carrying whale meat rather than oil)
* Violating the MARPOL convention (a treaty designed to eliminate the deliberate, negligent or accidental release of oil and other harmful substances from ships into the marine environment) after illegally re-fuelling whaling vessels in Antarctic waters.

The illegal operations of the Oriental Bluebird underscore the illegality of the entire Japanese whaling fleet. Japanese whalers are targeting endangered whales in the legally established Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary in violation of a global moratorium on commercial whaling.

It is also a violation of the Antarctic treaty to refuel ships at sea in the area protected under the treaty. Japanese vessels have been violating the treaty for years while undertaking their illegal whaling operations off the coast of Antarctica.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has had numerous confrontations with the Oriental Bluebird since 2005 including chasing the vessel out of the Antarctic treaty zone for unlawfully refueling the Japanese registered factory ship Nisshin Maru.

Because the Japanese government is a signatory to the MARPOL treaty, the Panamanian ruling against the Oriental Bluebird means that Japan cannot legally continue to use it for the whaling program, even if it is reflagged. MARPOL bars Japan from allowing a ship to participate in the exploitation of any marine resource for three years, even if that ship has changed its flag after being found in breach of international conservation measures.

The whaling fleet, including the Oriental Bluebird is currently berthed in Shimonoseki, Japan and is due to depart on its so-called scientific whale hunt to the Southern Ocean in the next few weeks. The Japanese fleet would of course be seriously compromised without a supply ship to offload the thousands of tons of illegal whale meat from the Nisshin Maru. Sea Shepherd anticipates that the whalers will utilize the Oriental Bluebird nonetheless under either the Japanese flag or another flag of convenience.

It is also reported that the Japanese government will be investing $8 million U.S. dollars to send a Japanese Coast Guard gunboat down to the Southern Oceans this year to defend illegal whaling activities. This will also be a violation of the Antarctic Treaty that prohibits armed military forces from operating in the treaty zone.

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[tropical_shark]

Found this in my email box this morning:-
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Japan kills 680 Antarctic whales
TOKYO - Japan's whaling catch in its latest Antarctic hunt fell far short of its target after disruptions by anti-whaling activists, the Fisheries Agency said on Monday.

Japan, which considers whaling to be a cherished cultural tradition, killed 679 minke whales despite plans to catch around 850. It caught just one fin whale compared with a target of 50 in the hunt that began in November.

Some ships in its six-ship fleet have returned home after clashes with the hardline group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, including a collision that crushed a railing on one of the Japanese ships.

A Fisheries Agency official said ships could not carry out whaling for a total of 16 days because of bad weather and skirmishes with the activists.

Japan officially stopped commercial whaling after agreeing to a global moratorium in 1986, but began what it calls a scientific research whaling programme the following year. Whale meat can be found in some supermarkets and restaurants.

The agency has declined to comment on a recent report that Japan is considering reducing the number of whales it catches each year.

Japan has a moratorium on catching humpback whales, a favourite with whale watchers, after international criticism.

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