Post by LSDeep on Feb 1, 2006 8:16:38 GMT -5
so much for the so-called "scientific whaling program"!!!
Hiroshi Osedo in Tokyo
01feb06
JAPAN'S controversial whale kill in the Southern Ocean has left the country with a glut of unwanted meat.
This stockpile is set to increase sharply this year because Tokyo has increased its cull.
The Institute of Cetacean Research has sent its six ships to catch up to 835 minke whales and 10 fin whales in the Antarctic – up from a maximum 440 in previous years.
Next year, the fleet is set to add endangered humpback whales to the catch. This plan has angered Australia, whose humpbacks are much loved by tourists.
The institute that has been conducting scientific whaling program says it has a few thousand tonnes of whale meat stockpiled.
"But, thanks to growing demands toward the year-end, the stockpile has now been reduced to some 2500 tonnes," a senior official at the institute said.
A citizens' group led by freelance journalist Junko Sakuma last week claimed in its newsletter IKA Net News that the inventory of whale meat had increased from a record low 673 tonnes in March 1998 to 4800 tonnes last August.
The inventory had been between 1000 and 2500 tonnes in 1995, the report said.
The stockpile of whale meat is expected to increase after the Government doubled its scientific whaling program for this season.
A spokesman for the Fisheries Agency said the main purpose of research whaling program was to gather scientific data for ecological study of whales.
"For effective use of natural resources, however, we are looking for ways to reduce its stockpile," he said.
In order to enhance ordinary consumers' appetite for whale meat, it opened in 2004 its own whale meat shop Yushin in Tokyo's downtown Asakusa district, the second of its kind after one in Osaka.
The shops sell all kinds of whale meats including red sashimi meat, whale bacon, skin and internal organs, and serves cooked whale meat to patrons. The institute has been promoting whale meat sales through chain restaurants such as Wara-wara as well as through casual "kaiten-zushi" (revolving sushi) restaurants.
Over 55 per cent of whale meat from the research goes to meat processing companies for canned foods, while 45 per cent is taken by public organisations such as schools and ordinary consumers.
"We have cultivated a new whale meat sale route – meat shops rather than fish stores," an official said.
He said meat shops were able to better keep whale meat fresh than fish stores, where they sometimes sold "dark-colour whale meat in a pool of blood".
He also said schoolchildren loved eating whale meat, unlike some of their parents who were influenced by anti-whaling sentiment.
"Schoolchildren have no special prejudice toward eating whale meat. They simply say it is delicious," he said.
A junior high school in northern Hokkaido Island last year resumed putting whale meat on lunch menus for the first time in 38 years.
www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,17999706%255E954,00.html
Hiroshi Osedo in Tokyo
01feb06
JAPAN'S controversial whale kill in the Southern Ocean has left the country with a glut of unwanted meat.
This stockpile is set to increase sharply this year because Tokyo has increased its cull.
The Institute of Cetacean Research has sent its six ships to catch up to 835 minke whales and 10 fin whales in the Antarctic – up from a maximum 440 in previous years.
Next year, the fleet is set to add endangered humpback whales to the catch. This plan has angered Australia, whose humpbacks are much loved by tourists.
The institute that has been conducting scientific whaling program says it has a few thousand tonnes of whale meat stockpiled.
"But, thanks to growing demands toward the year-end, the stockpile has now been reduced to some 2500 tonnes," a senior official at the institute said.
A citizens' group led by freelance journalist Junko Sakuma last week claimed in its newsletter IKA Net News that the inventory of whale meat had increased from a record low 673 tonnes in March 1998 to 4800 tonnes last August.
The inventory had been between 1000 and 2500 tonnes in 1995, the report said.
The stockpile of whale meat is expected to increase after the Government doubled its scientific whaling program for this season.
A spokesman for the Fisheries Agency said the main purpose of research whaling program was to gather scientific data for ecological study of whales.
"For effective use of natural resources, however, we are looking for ways to reduce its stockpile," he said.
In order to enhance ordinary consumers' appetite for whale meat, it opened in 2004 its own whale meat shop Yushin in Tokyo's downtown Asakusa district, the second of its kind after one in Osaka.
The shops sell all kinds of whale meats including red sashimi meat, whale bacon, skin and internal organs, and serves cooked whale meat to patrons. The institute has been promoting whale meat sales through chain restaurants such as Wara-wara as well as through casual "kaiten-zushi" (revolving sushi) restaurants.
Over 55 per cent of whale meat from the research goes to meat processing companies for canned foods, while 45 per cent is taken by public organisations such as schools and ordinary consumers.
"We have cultivated a new whale meat sale route – meat shops rather than fish stores," an official said.
He said meat shops were able to better keep whale meat fresh than fish stores, where they sometimes sold "dark-colour whale meat in a pool of blood".
He also said schoolchildren loved eating whale meat, unlike some of their parents who were influenced by anti-whaling sentiment.
"Schoolchildren have no special prejudice toward eating whale meat. They simply say it is delicious," he said.
A junior high school in northern Hokkaido Island last year resumed putting whale meat on lunch menus for the first time in 38 years.
www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,17999706%255E954,00.html