(JP)Meaty issue

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http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200705260109.html

 

Meaty issue

05/26/2007

 

BY TORU ISHII, THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

 

When Japan bowed out of commercial whaling operations

20 years ago, it opted to conduct " scientific whaling "

instead.

 

The controversial strategy seemed to offer an

opportunity to learn more about whales at a time of

worldwide concern about declining stocks of these

gracious mammals.

 

So what has Japan learned?

 

Well, it has caught and slaughtered more than 10,000

whales in pursuit of mostly sketchy and hotly disputed

data about whale populations. But that seems a meager

result for two decades of research.

 

Meantime, whale meat has ended up in the marketplace

just as before. This has coincided with moves in some

parts of Japan to reintroduce children to the joys of

whale meat in their school lunches.

 

Antiwhaling countries, Australia, New Zealand and the

United States, in particular, have fiercely criticized

Japan's research program, describing it as a thinly

disguised and subsidized exercise in commercial

whaling.

 

But the Japanese government remains adamant that

scientific whaling is the only means possible to study

whale populations and determine whether commercial

whaling is sustainable.

 

The International Whaling Commission (IWC), set up

under the International Convention for the Regulation

of Whaling to conserve whale stocks, has failed to

break the deadlock. The IWC's 75 member countries will

hold a general meeting starting Monday in Anchorage,

Alaska, to discuss the issue.

 

Back in Japan, whale meat is once again becoming a

feature on dinner tables.

 

Tsubohachi, which operates a chain of izakaya

Japanese-style pubs, now offers a plate of sliced raw

whale meat for 650 yen on its regular menu.

Previously, the dish could only be found on its

seasonal menu.

 

Red meat, tail and other whale parts are offered by

restaurants and supermarkets to be eaten raw, salted

and boiled, or seasoned with soy sauce and deep fried.

 

 

This constitutes the " other side " of research whaling

conducted in the Antarctic Ocean and Northwest Pacific

Ocean.

 

The research is entrusted by the Fisheries Agency to

the nonprofit Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) in

Tokyo. The institute sells the meat from the butchered

whales and uses the proceeds to fund its " research. "

 

About 5,500 tons of whale meat made it onto the market

last year, about double the amount of five years ago.

 

By February of this year, 3,200 tons were in stock--an

80 percent increase over the same period three years

ago.

 

In December 2005, wholesalers were forced to cut their

prices by 20 percent in a desperate effort to

encourage sales.

 

The sharp rise in the amount of whale meat for

consumption was attributed to the 2005 expansion of

research whaling in the Antarctic Ocean.

 

In 1982, the IWC set a moratorium on commercial

whaling. Japan adopted the agreement in 1987 and

promptly started research whaling instead.

 

The international convention on whaling, which came

into effect in 1948, places no limits on either the

scale or means of research whaling, allowing member

states to effectively do as they please.

 

Initially, Japan's target area was almost half of the

Antarctic Ocean. For the first research term between

1987 and 2005, it captured only minke whales, killing

about 400 each year. For the second period, which

started in 2005 and runs until 2011, whaling ships

have increased their annual haul of minke whales to

about 850 and have also started targeting the

endangered fin whale. So far, ICR officials say, Japan

has taken 8,152 minke whales and 13 fin whales from

the Antarctic Ocean.

 

In 1994, Japan expanded its whaling ground to the

Northwest Pacific Ocean, where it catches about 350

minke and sei whales each year.

 

In two decades, whaling ships have brought back more

than 10,000 whales from both oceans.

 

ICR researchers said their findings from the Antarctic

Ocean demonstrate the existence of two large

populations of minke whales; that the ocean is less

contaminated by polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) and

other chemical substances than oceans in northern

hemisphere; and that the number of humpback and fin

whales is increasing whereas the number of minke

whales has plateaued.

 

However, an IWC working group, which reviews the

results of Japan's research whaling, agreed with only

the finding about the existence of two big

populations, among its conclusions at a meeting last

December in Tokyo. The group could not reach a

conclusion on any of the other results of Japanese

research and asked for further evidence.

 

So far, little has been gleaned about the activities

of whale populations through research whaling. The ICR

estimates there are about 50,000 fin whales and about

40,000 humpback whales in the surveyed area of the

Antarctic Ocean, although both of these figures are

disputed by the working group. The IWC on the other

hand has previously estimated that there are 760,000

minke whales in the Antarctic Ocean, but it is now

unsure.

 

For the second term of research, Japan said it was

necessary to increase the scope and subjects of its

analysis to get a clearer picture of the ever-changing

Antarctic Ocean ecosystem. Ironically, claims by

antiwhaling countries that Japan must produce more

data to justify the results of its research only

necessitate further whaling.

 

Invariably, ICR researchers have argued that catching

and killing whales is unavoidable if humans are to

understand the age, distribution and the reproductive

rate of whale populations.

 

But Jun Hoshikawa, executive director of Greenpeace

Japan, questions the ICR's methodology.

 

" It is widely agreed that wildlife research must be

performed in a way that minimizes pointless slaughter.

It is no wonder that the current research is seen as

'commercial whaling' by a different name. At the very

least we must stop research whaling in the Antarctic

Ocean, which is part of international waters, " he

said.

 

Humpback whales in the Antarctic Ocean will be added

to the subject of research whaling this fall. Since

they are regarded as " whales for appreciation " --in

that they are the most popular among whale

watchers--the development is bound to add more

controversy to the ongoing debate.(IHT/Asahi: May

26,2007)