08/11/2005
- SOUTHERN JAPAN The whaling ship Nisshin-maru departs from
Aruka port, Shimonoseki, Southern Japan together with a
fleet of four catcher ships bound for the Southern Ocean
Whale Sanctuary with the intention of killing 1,000 whales.
Greenpeace called upon the Fisheries Agency of Japan (FAJ)
and the companies behind the whaling to immediately recall
the fleet and cancel the cull.
International — It’s that time of the year again, the six
ships of the whaling fleet are leaving Japan and heading
back to the culling ground, the “Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary,”
to carry out “scientific testing” on 1000 whales. The “scientific
test” involves harpooning the whale, measuring and weighing
the carcass, slicing and dicing, and finally delivering
it to markets, boxed and frozen.
The International Whaling Commission (IWC) banned commercial
whaling in 1986. The Southern Ocean was declared a Whale
Sanctuary in 1994. Yet every year the Fisheries Agency of
Japan (FAJ) sends the fleet of whalers back to the Southern
Ocean via a loophole in international law. The IWC has said
it does not need the data produced by the ‘research’ and
strongly urges Japan to call it off. The scale of the hunt
leads only to one conclusion, that this is commercial whaling.
“Sanctuary means refuge or
safe haven, yet this year nearly 1,000 whales will receive
neither from the whaler’s harpoon,” warned John Frizell
of Greenpeace International. “The Sanctuary is there to
help whales recover after over a century of relentless
persecution sent populations plummeting. Japan should
join all other countries in respecting the Sanctuary.”
Earlier this year, the FAJ announced
at the annual meeting of the IWC its intention to more
than double its "scientific" cull to 935 minke
whales and to add 50 fin whales and 50 humpback whales
over the next two years. Both humpback and fin whales
are listed as endangered species.
The Fisheries Agency of Japan claims,
"according to Japanese cultural values… whales are
viewed as a food source." However, an opinion poll
commissioned in 2002 by the influential Japanese Asahi
newspaper found that only four percent of the Japanese
population regularly eat whale meat nine percent rarely
eat it; 53 percent haven’t eaten it since childhood and
33 percent have never eaten it.
“In reality few Japanese people view
whale meat as a vital food source and even fewer actually
eat it. It is simply not true that whaling is important
to the Japanese public and the whaling fleet should not
leave for the Antarctic whale sanctuary,” said Mizuki
Takana of Greenpeace Japan.
The FAJ also claims that whales are
contributing to the collapse of fish stocks. "Ninety
nine per cent of the catch will be Southern Ocean minke
whales which eat krill and not fish. Only the newly added
endangered Fin and Humpback whales eat fish," said
John Frizell, Oceans campaigner at Greenpeace. "Are
we really saying that we cannot spare a few fish for endangered
whales? |
