BBC Japan faces whale 'cruelty' claim

[Guest guest]

> * Japan faces whale 'cruelty' claim *

>Australia will present what it says is proof

>that Japan's whaling programme is cruel.

>Full story:

>http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/sci/tech/5091674.stm

Japan faces whale 'cruelty' claim

By Richard Black

Environment correspondent, BBC News website, St Kitts

 

Australia is to present what it says is proof

that Japan's scientific whaling programme is

cruel, at the meeting of the International

Whaling Commission.

 

Environmentalists who filmed Japanese boats

whaling in the Antarctic say that some animals

took 30 minutes to die.

 

Japan says these cases are exceptions, and may

try to censure Greenpeace for interfering with

what it says is scientific research.

 

On Saturday, Japan lost a third key vote at the meeting in St Kitts.

 

But the margin of just one vote was narrower

than on the first day, a factor explained by the

late arrival of some African nations which

usually side with Japan.

 

The temperature of the meeting rose a notch,

with heated exchanges between Australian and

Japanese delegates.

 

Time to death

 

During the last Antarctic whaling season - which

saw a doubling of Japan's annual " scientific "

catch to just over 1,000 - Greenpeace filmed a

number of kills at close range.

 

The footage has now been analysed by scientists

working with another conservation group, the

International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw).

 

" We found that for one whale the time to death

was over half an hour, we found that the average

time to death was 10 minutes, " said Ifaw's

Vassili Papastavrou, " and in two out of the 16

occasions, asphyxiation was the likely form of

death. "

 

The whales were asphyxiated, he said, because

harpoons entered their bodies near the tail and

the animals were held upside down in the water.

 

" Back in the 1950s it was recognised that

whaling was inhumane, and really nothing very

much has changed since then, " Mr Papastavrou told

BBC News.

 

" It's simply impossible for the harpooner to hit

the whale close enough to the brain to ensure a

reliable clean kill in all cases. "

 

Japan maintains these examples are the exception rather than the rule.

 

" The time to death for the majority of whales is

less than 30 seconds, " said Glenn Inwood, a

spokesman for the Japanese delegation.

 

" Japan takes the issue of time to death very

seriously, and is working together with Norway to

improve the humane side of whaling. "

 

'Inhumane and disgusting'

 

Australia's Environment Minister Ian Campbell

described the footage as " absolutely inhumane and

quite disgusting " .

 

He told reporters: " It is a horrendous thing...

it is absolutely abysmal, it is wrong and it has

to stop. "

 

Japan's deputy whaling commissioner Joji

Morishita countered by pinpointing Australia's

annual cull of millions of kangaroos.

 

" I just wonder if the minister knows how long it

takes for kangaroos to die in his country? " he

said.

 

Mr Campbell is due to present the Ifaw analysis

during discussions on whale killing methods on

Sunday.

 

On Saturday, Japan suffered its third defeat of

the meeting, this time on a motion which would

have permitted some of its coastal communities to

hunt 150 minke whales each year for local

consumption.

 

Katsutoshi Mihara, chairman of the town council

in Taiji, one of the communities involved, told

the BBC that his region had a long tradition of

whaling, and food from the sea was vital as the

region lacked farming land.

 

He condemned conservation groups and

anti-whaling countries which want to prevent the

minke hunt, and which put pressure on Japan to

stop catching dolphins in Taiji.

 

Breaking the deadlock

 

Earlier in the day, Japan tabled a document

calling for " normalisation " of the IWC, by which

it means setting the organisation on a path

towards a resumption of commercial whaling.

 

Japan has invited nations which share its

long-term goal to a separate meeting later this

week.

 

The " normalisation " proposal did not go to a

vote, and neither did another proposal from the

Netherlands and New Zealand delegations which

would see a high-level meeting of the world's

environment ministers convened to reform the IWC.

 

" It's working very badly, it's very bad

governance, " said Dutch whaling commissioner

Giuseppe Raaphorst. "

 

" Normally with governments you take decisions

and move forwards; we're not moving forwards,

we're going backwards, " he told BBC News, " and

the only thing you can do is get the ministers

together to solve it. "

 

The Netherlands hopes to convene such a summit before next year's IWC meeting.

 

Richard.Black-INTERNET

 

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/sci/tech/5091674.stm

 

Published: 2006/06/18 07:02:35 GMT

 

© BBC MMVI

 

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