16 November 2007 - International
— The Japanese whaling fleet has delayed
its departure to the Southern Ocean for
its annual whale hunt to avoid political
embarrassment when Japanese Prime Minister
Yasuo Fukuda meets with US President George
W. Bush.
Japan's annual Southern Ocean whale hunt
is conducted under the guise of science
but has been condemned internationally.
This season, Japan aims to kill more than
1,000 whales, including 50 endangered fin
whales and, for the first time in 20 years,
50 threatened humpback whales will also
be harpooned.
The International Whaling Commission has
called for an end to the killing of whales
in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary under
Japan's whaling programme.
Our ship the Esperanza is currently positioned
just outside Japanese territorial waters
and will be following the Japanese whaling
fleet after it leaves the port of Shimonseki
for its passage towards the Antarctic.
"The Japanese government's 'scientific'
whaling programme is a sham and a source
of diplomatic tension between Japan and
countries that support whale conservation,
like the United States. Whaling has no place
in Antarctica - it's a place of peace and
science, and this is not science,"
said Karli Thomas, expedition leader aboard
the Esperanza.
An opinion poll carried out in Japan by
the Nippon Research Centre, in June 2006,
showed that 95 per cent of Japanese people
never or rarely eat whale meat. More than
two-thirds of Japanese do not support whaling
on the high seas.
Another study recently conducted by Julia
Bowett, a PhD student from the University
of Tasmania, found that among Japanese students
approximately 65 percent agreed with the
view that scientific research on whales
should only use non-lethal methods.
To prove that you don't need to kill whales
for research, Greenpeace is collaborating
with a team of scientists on the 'Great
Whale Trail' project.
Data from satellite tagging of whales,
harmless skin biopsies and fluke identification
has already yielded valuable information
about the migration patterns of threatened
humpback populations, without a single harpoon
being fired.
We will display the location of the whaling
fleet as it is tracked south by the Esperanza
on the same map on which it is tracking
humpback migration routes from their breeding
grounds in New Caledonia and the Cook Islands.
"Japan's whalers are deceiving the
Japanese public by painting the word 'research'
on their ships," said Junichi Sato,
Greenpeace Japan Whales Project leader.
"Real scientists don't need to kill
whales to study them. This is commercial
whaling poorly dressed up as science."
"The Japanese Government should already
know that information about whales can be
gained without killing them. The Antarctic
whale hunt is an expensive waste of Japanese
taxpayers' money and goes against public
opinion in Japan and overseas. The time
has come for the Japanese government to
end this hunt."
Japan has close to 4,000 tons of whale
meat from its 'scientific' whaling programme
in cold storage - uneaten, unsold, and unwanted.
