Jenny Shipley's visit to Japan has focused attention on the country's whaling practices. SETH ROBSON canvasses a rarely heard view.
In the movie Free Willy a killer whale is portrayed as possessing intelligence on a par with humans. Having watched those images it is hard for Westerners to accept that some Japanese gourmets might prefer to fry Willy than to free him. Unlike New Zealanders, many of whom would rush to save a stranded whale, Japanese see the creatures as a source of protein to be managed as a valuable resource.
The First Secretary at the Japanese Embassy in Wellington, Masahiko Suneya, says reports tend to humanise whales and it is rare to hear the Japanese point of view.
"I cannot help but feel that there is too much emotion associated with this issue," Mr Suneya says.
Japan is asking to continue whaling on the basis of the International Whaling Commission mandate. The mandate is not to ban whaling, but to continue it on a sustainable basis.
"Some species are facing extinction but other species can be used as a resource," Mr Suneya says.
The most typical example is the minke whale. Data generated by the Japanese scientific whaling programme puts the minke whale population at more than three-quarters of a million. A certain amount of whaling would not affect the sustainability of those stocks, Mr Suneya says.
DNA testing by an Auckland University forensic DNA specialist Dr Scott Baker has revealed killer whale and dolphin meat is being sold at markets in Japan. According to Mr Suneya, the meat may have been stockpiled before the moratorium on whaling was introduced in 1994. If there were evidence of illegal sales, markets would be prosecuted.
"The Japanese Government is taking stringent measures to restrict the importation of whale meat from non-member countries of the IWC."
Mr Suneya says whale meat is not a significant part of the Japanese diet and the amount consumed is small compared with beef, crops, and other seafood.
The World Wildlife Fund is campaigning against Japan's scientific whaling programme and raising funds for more DNA research into whales in the wild.
"WWF's campaign is pro-whale, rather than anti-Japanese, but having said that, it is the Japanese who are whaling in the Southern Ocean," says director of conservation programmes Simon Towle.
The IWC's scientific committee has concluded that Japan's scientific whaling programme does nothing to help the management of whale stocks.
DNA research would not require the killing of any whales. It would determine how large the gene pool is for each species.
"If the gene pool is too small a species can become extinct easily because there is little tolerance to disease."
Mr Towle says the Japanese appetite for whale meat was created by a shortage of protein during the post-war years. Whale meat became a standard meal for many Japanese and now it is proving a habit hard to break.
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