(JP) Smells fishy:The IWC gets winds of unsavory whaling practices

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http://www.asahi.com/english/national/K2002051100235.html

 

Smells fishy:The IWC gets winds of unsavory whaling

practices

 

By JUN SAITO, The Asahi Shimbun

 

As if Japan didn't have enough problems with its

whaling image, a recent book by a whaling insider says

Japanese caught far more whales than official

statistics show and routinely landed undersized

mammals in defiance of growing international concerns.

 

 

The expose by Isao Kondo, who worked in coastal

whaling for more than 30 years, reveals a dark side of

Japan's past commercial whaling that was hitherto

unknown. It has also stirred up a hornet's nest in the

domestic whaling community and been brought to the

attention of an unsmiling International Whaling

Commission.

 

The timing, perhaps, could not be worse given Japan's

stated intention to resume research whaling operations

in its costal areas. The plan was announced ahead of

the annual general meeting of the IWC in Shimonoseki,

Yamaguchi Prefecture, from May 20 to 24.

 

Such is the IWC's interest in the book titled ``Nihon

Engan-hogei-no Kobo'' (Rise and Fall of Japan's Costal

Whaling), that it asked a Japanese expert to submit a

report on the subject.

 

The report, using data from the book, has been

submitted to the IWC's science committee, which has

been in session since late April.

 

The book, published last year, created a commotion in

the whaling community because Kondo, 75, disclosed

that Japanese whaling companies engaged in coastal

hunting of large specimens such as sperm whales

falsified reports on the number they caught.

 

The book touched on commercial whaling activities

between the mid-1950s and the early 1970s before Japan

embarked on its controversial whaling for research

purposes.

 

``I didn't mean to expose any secrets from the whaling

days of old. I just thought I ought to record what

actually happened,'' Kondo told The Asahi Shimbun in a

telephone interview without elaborating.

 

In the book, Kondo wrote that when immature whales

were caught, whaling company officials falsified data

on their lengths. He said officials would whip out

tape measures they kept up their sleeves and submitted

measurements for much larger animals.

 

Fisheries Agency inspectors frowned at the goings-on

but essentially turned a blind eye, Kondo wrote.

 

The IWC asked Toshio Kasuya, professor of Teikyo

University of Science and Technology, to submit a

report on the dubious whaling practices based on his

and Kondo's findings.

 

His report was submitted to the IWC's closed-door

scientific committee.

 

In some cases, catches were two to three times higher

than the number officially acknowledged, according to

the report.

 

Commission officials and Kasuya declined to comment on

the report.

 

The Fisheries Agency apparently is very unhappy about

the book and the report. Even so, officials declined

comment.

 

However, Canadian author C.W. Nicol, a onetime whaling

monitor for the Canadian government, expressed deep

disappointment at the deception by Japanese whaling

companies and the industry as a whole.

 

Nicol has long been a vocal advocate for a resumption

of commercial whaling. The IWC slapped a moratorium on

such activities in 1982.

 

Nicol said he will be critical of Japanese whaling

activities from now on because of the systematic

cheating over so many years.(IHT/Asahi: May 11,2002)

 

 

 

 

 

 

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