Japan Seeks `Aboriginal' Return to Whaling for Profit

Japan's government, which this week sponsored a meeting of mostly pro-whaling countries, said the legalization of killing whales for profit in Japanese communities should be considered an ``aboriginal'' right.

Japan proposed an amendment to the International Whaling Commission's moratorium on commercial whaling to allow four coastal communities to hunt a proportion of the whales killed annually under the Japanese government's so-called scientific research program.

``There's no clear difference between Japan's small coastal whaling'' and ``subsistence whaling by aboriginal people in many different countries'' which is allowed under IWC rules, Joji Morishita, Japan's IWC delegate told the meeting that ended yesterday in Tokyo.

Japan is garnering support to increase killing the mammals despite ``having virtually no market, no scientific justification, and no community benefit,'' environmental group Greenpeace said in a statement. The meeting, boycotted by about a third of IWC members, is part of Japan's attempt to overturn the global ban on killing whales for profit, Greenpeace said.

Japan's proposal would allow the towns of Taiji, Wada and Ayukawa on the main island of Honshu and Abashiri on Hokkaido, to kill minke whales from the Okhotsk Sea-East Pacific stock, 220 of which are killed annually under Japan's scientific programs.

Hinting of Exit

Japan began scientific research whaling in 1987, a year after the IWC voted to ban on all commercial whaling. The government, through its whaling company Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha, plans to catch about 1,300 whales this year, more than the total number caught in the final year of commercial hunting.

Japan wants to harpoon as many as 935 minke whales and 10 fin whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary near Antarctica. In addition to the minkes in the Okhotsk-Pacific zone, Japan plans to hunt 50 sei, 50 bryde and 10 sperm whales, according to the government's Institute of Cetacean Research Web site.

Morishita called on the IWC to consider the coastal proposal in terms of sustainability, and hinted Japan may leave the organization if there's no progress on commercial whaling before the next annual meeting, scheduled for May. Japan failed in an attempt to get the ban overturned at last year's meeting in St. Kitts and Nevis.

``People should refrain from criticizing this proposal just because they object to harvesting whales,'' Morishita told reporters after the meeting. ``Some sort of positive movement needs to take place or we will have to rethink our options.''

Ship on Fire

The meeting concluded hours after a fire started on Japan's factory whaling ship, the Nisshin Maru, which is hunting whales in the Southern Ocean. One sailor is missing.

New Zealand's Conservation Minister Chris Carter said Japan should consider assistance from Greenpeace to tow the Nisshin Maru away from its position near Antarctica's biggest penguin colony.

Greenpeace's Esperanza vessel is less than a day's sailing from the whaling ship, which has been stranded since yesterday in the Ross Sea 265 nautical miles (231 kilometers) northwest of the McMurdo Base operated by the U.S.

Three days earlier the Nisshin Maru and a vessel belonging to the Sea Shepherd action group collided, causing minor damage to both and underlining how tense the argument between whalers and environmentalists is getting.

Japan's Cetacean Institute, which sponsors the expeditions with the Fisheries Ministry, accused Sea Shepherd of ``terrorism'' and posted a video of the incident. Sea Shepherd denies ramming the research ship.

Falling Consumption

Whale meat consumption in Japan fell to about 30 grams (0.07 pounds) per person a year in 2004 from about 5 kilograms (11 pounds) during the 1960s, Junko Sakuma, a former Greenpeace official said in a report published by the Tokyo-based Dolphin & Whale Action Network last year. A 30-gram piece of whale meat is about the size of a slice of sashimi.

Uneaten inventory of whale meat from Japan's expeditions, called ``research byproduct,'' rose to 4,220 tonnes in 2005, Sakuma said.

The increase in whales killed for research is indicative of the IWC's problems, according to Bruno Mainini, the delegate from Switzerland, one of the few anti-whaling countries that attended this week's meeting, which also produced a recommendation to introduce secret ballots at IWC meetings.

``More whales are being killed now than 10 years ago and that is in the name of science,'' Mainini said. ``While it would be nice to have a situation where no whales are killed at all, it may be that introducing commercial whaling with very tight controls may actually be better protection for the whales.''

If the IWC maintains a zero-tolerance for commercial whaling, pro-whaling countries may leave as Canada did in 1982, Mainini said. ``Then there will be no protection left for the whales.''

Failing Obligations

Overturning the IWC's ban on commercial whaling requires a three-quarters majority. Greenpeace said Japan's government is using aid money to win votes to support commercial whaling, a claim denied by Japan's Fisheries Agency.

At the last meeting, IWC members adopted a declaration stating the IWC failed to meet its obligation ``to ensure whale stocks are not over-harvested rather than protecting all whales irrespective of their abundance.''

Two thirds of the 33 countries which voted in favor of the declaration have received $470 million in aid from Japan since 1994, the Greenpeace statement said.

Mali, a desert state in Africa with no coastline which joined the IWC in 2004, and the Marshall Islands also pledged support for the proposal. The U.S. and Australia were among anti-whaling nations which boycotted the meeting.

``The Japanese proposal doesn't really take things forward, because it doesn't change the number of whales being killed,'' Mainini said.

source:www.bloomberg.com