Japan to Expand Scientific Whale Culls

[Guest guest]

[Japan is a nation that needs to be seriously

boycotted! Rick.]

 

 

 

Japan to Expand Scientific Whale Culls

 

Mon Jun 20,12:05 PM ET

 

Source >

http://news./s/ap/20050620/ap_on_sc/skorea_whaling_meeting_7;_ylt=ApRyG\

NLUeQYlNh8nb3hCAyc3_qkB;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

 

ULSAN, South Korea - Japan said Monday it would

dramatically expand its research whaling, doubling the

number of minke whales it kills annually for

scientific study.

 

The announcement came on the opening day of the

International Whaling Commission's annual plenary

session, the group that regulates global whale hunts.

The Cambridge, England-based commission, which has 66

members, banned commercial hunts in 1986, handing

environmentalists a major victory in protecting

species that were near extinction after centuries of

whaling.

 

Japan said it would begin culling as many as 935 minke

whales annually — up from 440 this year — in a new

program beginning in the Southern Hemisphere later

this year. Japan, Norway and other nations that

advocate what they call " sustainable use " of sea

resources, including whales, this year are expected to

kill more than 1,550 of the mammals.

 

In an early setback for their hopes to eventually

overturn the ban on commercial whaling, however, Japan

and its allies failed to muster a simple majority at

the start of the five-day meeting in this industrial

city facing the Sea of Japan. It would take a majority

of three-fourths to overturn the moratorium on

commercial whaling.

 

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On the Net:

 

International Whaling Commission:

http://www.iwcoffice.org

 

Greenpeace: http://www.greenpeace.org.uk

 

Institute of Cetacean Research: http://www.icrwhale