Research ship leaves for Antarctic
2010-02-02 13:11
Wellington - A group of scientists sailed from Wellington on Tuesday on a mission designed to show Japan that it is possible to do research on whales in Antarctic waters without killing them.
The joint Australia-New Zealand expedition is to use non-lethal techniques to study humpback whales, Antarctic minke whales and blue whales in the Ross Sea area and the adjacent Southern Ocean.
The scientists plan to use satellite tracking, acoustic surveys, cameras and darts to take biopsy samples of whales they encounter on their six-week voyage on the New Zealand National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) ship Tangaroa.
They said the research would provide valuable information on the numbers of whales, their population structure, distribution and migratory paths from the rich feeding grounds of the Southern Ocean to the tropical waters further north where they breed.
It is the New Zealand and Australian governments' answer to Japan's annual scientific research programme in Antarctic waters which this year aims to kill 850 minke whales and 50 fin whales.
The Japanese programme is permitted by the 77-member International Whaling Commission, but opponents say that because the resulting whale meat finds its way into Japanese shops and restaurants, it is thinly disguised commercial whaling, banned under a 1986 moratorium.
There have been increasingly serious clashes in Antarctic waters between the Japanese and the US-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which sends ships to try to stop the whaling.
The Sea Shepherd's high-speed protest trimaran Ady Gil sank last month after a collision with one of the Japanese whaling fleet's six ships and the six men aboard had to be rescued.
The Tangaroa's voyage is the first expedition to be made by the 13-nation Southern Ocean Research Partnership (SORP) established in March which developed a five-year scientific plan endorsed by the IWC.
NIWA says it is the first international, multi-disciplinary, research collaboration in the Southern Ocean focussed on improving the conservation of whales.
Preliminary results of the expedition are to be presented at the next IWC annual meeting in Morocco in June.
- SAPA