*NEWS*STUPID JAPANESE GOVERNMENT

[Anonymous]

Japan’s whaling fleet sets sail

Japan’s whaling fleet has set sail for Antarctic waters where it will make its biggest catch in 20 years.

The boats will aim to catch nearly 1,000 whales over the coming months.

A global moratorium on commercial whaling has been in place since the 1980s, but Japan describes its programme as “scientific.”

The hunting is condemned by most conservation groups on the grounds
that it is inhumane, unnecessary and may harm fragile wildlife
populations.

The fleet sailed on Tuesday from Shimonoseki port for the first year of a “research” programme called JARPA-2.

It envisages catching up to 935 minke whales and 10 fin whales during
the southern hemisphere summer to “…monitor the Antarctic ecosystem,
model competition among whale species… elucidate temporal and spatial
changes in stock structure and improve the management procedure for the
Antarctic minke whale stocks.”

Doubling the catch

JARPA-2 replaces the JARPA-1 programme which took 440 Antarctic minkes each season.

In two years’ time JARPA-2 will expand to include humpbacks, the favoured species for whale watchers.

Critics say this is commercial whaling in disguise, with meat obtained from the hunts sold for food in restaurants and schools.

Scientific objectives can be met through non-lethal methods, they say.

“Japan’s announcement that it intends to kill more than twice as many
minke whales and hunt two new species over the coming years provoked
international outrage earlier this year,” commented Philippa Brakes, a
scientist with the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.

“The Japanese whalers know that the eyes of the world
are upon them with an intensity that they have not experienced since
the moratorium,” she told the BBC News website.

In June, the annual meeting of the International
Whaling Commission (IWC) passed a resolution condemning JARPA-2; but it
has no power, as any member nation is empowered to run “scientific”
programmes.

Sixty-three members of the IWC’s Scientific Committee
commented: “With the new proposal, Japan will increase its annual
take… to levels approaching the annual commercial quotas for
Antarctic minke whales that were in place prior to the moratorium.

“Consequently, we… feel unable to engage in a scientifically defensible process of review of the JARPA-2 proposal.”

Supply chain

CURRENT MAXIMUM CATCHES Norway (objection) – 796 minke from the north Atlantic Japan (scientific) – 935 minke and 10 fin whales from Antarctic; 220 minke, 100 sei, 50 Bryde’s and 10 sperm from north-west Pacific Iceland (scientific) – 39 minke from north Atlantic Greenland (aboriginal) – 187 minke and 10 fin Alaska & eastern Siberia (aboriginal) – 140 grey and 67 bowhead St Vincent & Grenadines (aboriginal) – 4 humpback Northern Hemisphere catches cover a calendar year; Southern Hemisphere figures span two calendar years

Although there is a global moratorium in commercial whaling dating from 1986, a number of countries continue to hunt.

Japan and Iceland run “scientific” programmes, while Norway lodged a
formal objection to the moratorium which permits it to maintain an
openly commercial operation.

A number of indigenous peoples are also allowed to hunt under tight restrictions.

The sheer volume of Japan’s operations makes it the principal target for the wrath of conservation groups.

It also runs a scientific whaling programme in the north Pacific called
JARPN, which this year took 100 sei whales, 100 minkes, 50 Bryde’s
whales and five sperm whales.

The Antarctic and Pacific programmes run at different
times of the year, which conservationists allege is geared towards
providing a constant supply of whale meat.

The JARPA-2 plans have created a flurry of activity in
Australia and New Zealand, countries which were once highly active in
the whaling industry but where hunting now provokes outrage, some of it
connected to the burgeoning whale watching industry.

“We are calling on conservation minded governments to
make the highest level representations from heads of state to the Prime
Minister of Japan,” said Philippa Brakes.

“We want them to urge him to address the burgeoning
commercial hunts that Japan is conducting under the guise of scientific
whaling.”

There has been talk in Australian government circles of denying
Japanese fishing vessels access to Australian ports or of taking legal
action; but environment minister Ian Campbell, in comments to an
Australian newspaper, appeared to rule out punitive measures.

“My strong view is that the actions that Australia is
taking have the best chance of leading to a cessation of whaling
altogether,” he told The Age.

“We have tried very hard with both bilateral activity and diplomatic activity.”

The reality is that on many other issues, Australia, New Zealand and
Japan are closely allied, and whaling concerns are unlikely to figure
as highly on the diplomatic agenda as security or trade.

Though Japan’s hunting causes widespread concern in
western countries, it is supported by a number of other governments;
and as yet, the anti-hunt bloc does not have a mechanism through which
it can force Japan to scale back or abandon its whaling operation.

[Author]

November 8, 2005 at 11:19 AM