April 8th, 1998
GLAND, Switzerland -- WWF-World Wide Fund For Nature again urged
Japan to reconsider its large-scale "scientific whaling" which marks a
decade today with the return of the Japanese whaling fleet to their home
port of Shimonoseki in Japan.
The Japanese factory ship Nisshin Maru, three whale catcher boats and
one sighting boat, returned from the Antarctic today with 440 minke
whales in their tenth successive season of so-called "scientific
research whaling". The whole Southern Ocean was declared a
sanctuary for whales in 1994 by the International Whaling Commission
(IWC), but while it can criticise, the IWC is powerless to stop Japan's
'research' whaling.
"The IWC decided almost unanimously four years ago that the Southern
Ocean should be a whale sanctuary" said Cassandra Phillips, WWF's
Coordinator for whales and the Antarctic, "and yet Japan persists in
defying world opinion. This lethal 'research' whaling must be halted
now."
The IWC's Scientific Committee have said that the research whaling does
not provide any information that is needed for the management of
whaling, and the IWC passed a strongly-worded Resolution at it last
meeting (Monaco, October 1997) calling on Japan to cease this whaling.
Japan is using a legal loophole in the Whaling Convention which permits
countries to undertake scientific research in spite of the sanctuary and
the global moratorium on commercial whaling.
At the 1997 IWC meeting in Monaco, Ireland tabled a package of
proposals designed to end the deadlock in the IWC. The package
included a phase-out of Japan's research whaling, but little progress
has been made so far in reaching agreement on the proposals. They will
be debated again at the IWC's 50th Meeting, to be held 16 to 20 May in
Oman.
The meat from the 'research' whaling will be sold on the open market in
Japan, where whale meat fetches more than ten times the price of pork
or beef. Some of it is destined to be served at school lunches to foster
the taste for whalemeat amongst children. The whaling ships will be
open to the public for two days next week, and will set off again in the
summer to hunt for minkes in the North Pacific.
If there is no agreement in the IWC on the 'Irish proposals', the Japanese
whaling fleet will once again sail for the Antarctic to hunt another 440
minke whales at the start of the next season in December.
For more information, please contact Cassandra Phillips at + 44 1386 88
20 55 or Someshwar Singh at +41 22 364 95 53.