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Endangered Seas Campaign

Whales In The Wild



Japan's 10th "Scientific Whaling" Hunt Hauls 440 Minke Whales From The Antarctic

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.