Japan defies whale hunting ban

2007-11-17 11:54

Tokyo - Four decades ago, the world banned the killing of humpback whales after rampant hunting drove the acrobatic giants to near extinction.

Now, humpbacks are in the cross-hairs again.

Japan's whaling fleet will leave port shortly for the South Pacific with orders to kill up to 50 of the beasts - the first known large-scale hunt of humpback whales harpooned since a 1963 moratorium put them under international protection.

The Fisheries Agency has refused to release the fleet's departure date. But the lead whaling ship's operator, Kyodo Senpaku Ltd, said they could set sail from the southern city of Shimonoseki this weekend.

The ships, led by the 8 030-tonne Nisshin Maru, will embark on their largest-ever scientific hunt in the South Pacific. Besides humpbacks, they will take up to 935 Antarctic minke whales and up to 50 fin whales.

But it is Tokyo's plans to hunt the humpback - a favorite among whale-watchers for its distinctive knobby head, intelligence and out-of-the-water acrobatics - that has triggered condemnation among environmentalists.

"These whales don't have to die," said Junichi Sato, a spokesperson for the environmentalist group Greenpeace in Tokyo. "Humpbacks are very sensitive and live in close-knit pods. So even one death can be extremely damaging," he said.

Off-limits

Humpback whales have been off-limits since 1963 except for a small number caught under a subsistence whaling program by the semiautonomous Danish territory of Greenland and the Caribbean nation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Last year, they caught one humpback each, according to the International Whaling Commission.

The former Soviet Union also hunted some humpbacks until 1973 in defiance of the ban, though it remains unclear how many they took.

Scientists say humpback whales are complex creatures that communicate through long, complex "songs." Measuring 12-15m and weighing 25-40 tonnes, they are extremely acrobatic, often throwing themselves out of the water, swimming on their backs with both flippers in the air, or slapping the water with their tail or flippers.

The American Cetacean Society estimates the global humpback population at 30 000-40 000, about a third of levels seen before modern whaling. The species is listed as "vulnerable" by the World Conservation Union.

Sustainable levels

But Japanese fisheries officials insist both humpback and fin populations - estimated at up to 60 000 - are back to sustainable levels.

"Humpback whales in our research area are rapidly recovering," said Hideki Moronuki, whaling chief at the Fisheries Agency. "Taking 50 humpbacks from a population of tens of thousands will have no significant impact whatsoever."

Moronuki says killing whales allows marine biologists to study their internal organs. Ovaries provide vital clues to reproductive systems, earwax indicates age, and stomach contents reveal eating habits, he said.

Meat from Japan's scientific catch is sold commercially, as permitted by the IWC, but Japanese officials deny that profits are a goal.

Japan also argues that whaling is a Japanese tradition dating back to the early 1600s, and has pushed unsuccessfully at the IWC to reverse its 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling.

- SAPA