Post by LSDeep on Apr 4, 2005 11:48:24 GMT -5
TOKYO, Japan (2 April 2005) -- Japan plans to extend its research whaling program in the Antarctic Ocean, an official said Friday, after the country wraps up 18 years of expeditions that anti-whaling groups and nations criticize as commercial whaling in disguise.
A hunt authorized by the International Whaling Commission ended Thursday, after five ships returned home from the Antarctic with their haul of 440 minke whales, Japan's Fisheries Agency said.
"We already have submitted a new research plan for the Antarctic," said agency official Takanori Nagatomo. He declined to offer details of the plan, which was sent to the IWC's scientific committee in March and will be discussed at the IWC's annual meeting in South Korea in June.
The IWC banned commercial whaling in 1986 to protect the endangered mammals, but it approved limited hunts for research purposes a year later. Under a research program, Japanese research whaling boats hunt hundreds of whales a year in the waters of Antarctica and the northwestern Pacific Ocean.
The whaling ships' return to Japan on Thursday marked the end to a 16-year survey and a two-year feasibility study in the Antarctic. A separate plan for research whaling in the Pacific was submitted at last year's IWC meeting.
Japan says its research provides key data on whale populations, their breeding and feeding habits and impact on fish stocks, which are all reported to the IWC.
But Japanese expeditions have caused sharp divisions at annual IWC meetings, where Tokyo's hunts and calls for the resumption of commercial whaling have drawn strong protest from environmental groups and anti-whaling countries such as the United States and Britain.
CDNN Act Now - Boycott Pro-Whaling Caribbean Nations
Those critics say Japan's research whaling program differs little from commercial whaling because the whale meat is sold to Japanese supermarkets and restaurants. They also oppose the resumption of Japan's program because of the difficulty of enforcing catch quotas.
Tokyo says the meat sales - worth about US$52 million (euro40.1 million) in 2003 - help fund the program and limit the waste of ocean resources.
Hiroshi Hatanaka, director of Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research, said statistics from both hunts and sightings suggest that abundant fin and humpback whale populations are expanding, and that the growth of minke whale herds has probably slowed.
Japanese officials say the numbers indicate how many whales can be killed commercially without significantly depleting their stocks.
"Japan wants to resume sustainable commercial whaling. This is our basic stance," Nagatomo, the Fisheries Agency official, said.
Tokyo has been unable to muster the three-fourths majority of IWC member nations needed to overturn the commercial whaling ban, and recently has threatened to quit the commission.
Each year, Japan kills about 400 minke whales in the Antarctic and another 210 whales - 100 minke whales, 50 Bryde's whales, 50 sei whales and 10 sperm whales - in the northwestern Pacific.
SOURCE - CDS
A hunt authorized by the International Whaling Commission ended Thursday, after five ships returned home from the Antarctic with their haul of 440 minke whales, Japan's Fisheries Agency said.
"We already have submitted a new research plan for the Antarctic," said agency official Takanori Nagatomo. He declined to offer details of the plan, which was sent to the IWC's scientific committee in March and will be discussed at the IWC's annual meeting in South Korea in June.
The IWC banned commercial whaling in 1986 to protect the endangered mammals, but it approved limited hunts for research purposes a year later. Under a research program, Japanese research whaling boats hunt hundreds of whales a year in the waters of Antarctica and the northwestern Pacific Ocean.
The whaling ships' return to Japan on Thursday marked the end to a 16-year survey and a two-year feasibility study in the Antarctic. A separate plan for research whaling in the Pacific was submitted at last year's IWC meeting.
Japan says its research provides key data on whale populations, their breeding and feeding habits and impact on fish stocks, which are all reported to the IWC.
But Japanese expeditions have caused sharp divisions at annual IWC meetings, where Tokyo's hunts and calls for the resumption of commercial whaling have drawn strong protest from environmental groups and anti-whaling countries such as the United States and Britain.
CDNN Act Now - Boycott Pro-Whaling Caribbean Nations
Those critics say Japan's research whaling program differs little from commercial whaling because the whale meat is sold to Japanese supermarkets and restaurants. They also oppose the resumption of Japan's program because of the difficulty of enforcing catch quotas.
Tokyo says the meat sales - worth about US$52 million (euro40.1 million) in 2003 - help fund the program and limit the waste of ocean resources.
Hiroshi Hatanaka, director of Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research, said statistics from both hunts and sightings suggest that abundant fin and humpback whale populations are expanding, and that the growth of minke whale herds has probably slowed.
Japanese officials say the numbers indicate how many whales can be killed commercially without significantly depleting their stocks.
"Japan wants to resume sustainable commercial whaling. This is our basic stance," Nagatomo, the Fisheries Agency official, said.
Tokyo has been unable to muster the three-fourths majority of IWC member nations needed to overturn the commercial whaling ban, and recently has threatened to quit the commission.
Each year, Japan kills about 400 minke whales in the Antarctic and another 210 whales - 100 minke whales, 50 Bryde's whales, 50 sei whales and 10 sperm whales - in the northwestern Pacific.
SOURCE - CDS