Alexander,+C

Whaling Facts... WHY DO THE JAPANESE DO IT?



Hello, Cherylynn! These are wild pictures! Interesting (and horrifying) facts about whaling. Keep up the good work! Mrs. McKee **Top ten facts whalers don't want you to know** 1. Some 25,000 whales have been killed since the ban on commercial whaling began.
 * World Society for the Protection of Animals**

2. Whales are usually killed with an explosive harpoon that detonates inside the whale's body. If the first harpoon fails to kill the whale, then a second penthrite harpoon or a rifle is used.

3. Some whales take over an hour to die.

4. Today, the meat and blubber of sperm whales caught by the Japanese, under the guise of research whaling, is too polluted to be sold on the Japanese consumer market.

5. By the time the International Whaling Commission banned commercial whaling in 1986, some whale species had been reduced by more than 95%.

6. There is currently no limit on the number of weapons or bullets that can be used to kill a whale and no upper limit on the acceptable time to death.

7. Japan reported that nearly 60% of whales did not die rapidly or ‘instantaneously' in its hunts in 2002/2003. Norway reported about 20% failed to die ‘instantaneously' in its hunts for the same period.

8. There are only two IWC established sanctuaries in the world. Every year, Japan kills whales in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary, in waters that are supposed to be ‘whaling-free'.

9. The meat from whaling operations, whether commercial or scientific, is used for human consumption. The killing methods fall well short of the standards necessary to achieve humane slaughter in livestock animals.

10. In the past, the entire whale (caught in commercial whaling) was used. Today, in Norway, only the flesh is eaten and the blubber is discarded.

[]  (MOBY)

Japanese whaling:


 * [|Whaling] ** in [|Japan] may have begun as early as the 12th century. During the 20th century Japan was heavily involved in commercial whaling until the [|International Whaling Commission] moratorium on commercial whaling. Japanese whaling is currently restricted to hunts conducted by the [|Institute of Cetacean Research]. It is, however, a source of political dispute between pro- and anti-whaling countries and organizations. Nations, scientists and environmental organizations opposed to whaling consider the Japanese research program to be unnecessary at best and a thinly disguised commercial whaling operation at worst. [|[1]][|[2]][|[3]] Japan maintains the annual take of whales is sustainable and necessary for scientific study and management of whale stocks. Japan also argues that objections to whaling are based upon cultural differences and emotional [|anthropomorphism]. [|[4]][|[5]]

 [] = = =[]= []

The IWC (International Whaling Commission)

 * The IWC is the organisation responsible for regulating whaling. It was formed in 1946 to manage sustainable hunting of whales. Now it is responsible for conservation of whales, but it is still an imperfect system reflecting its pro-whaling origins.
 * In 1982 the IWC voted to introduce a Moratorium on Commercial Whaling, to take effect in 1986, however Japan never stopped killing whales (see ‘Scientific whaling’ below).
 * In fact, more than 25,000 whales have been killed since the Moratorium was supposed to come into force.
 * IWC decisions are based on a vote, and Japan “encourages” small third world countries to join the IWC and vote on their side. Japan is alleged to have handed out more than $400 million in bribes so far.

Japanese ‘Scientific Whaling’

 * Japan exploits a loophole in IWC legislation, and has never stopped killing whales despite the Moratorium. They simply assign themselves a permit to undertake ‘scientific whaling’ (ie. killing whales for the purpose of scientific research) and continue hunting whales as before.
 * This practice has been described as “commercial whaling in disguise” – particularly as the meat ends up for sale in high class Japanese restaurants.
 * Japanese claim to be undertaking research by killing whales. However, most of the data collected by the Japanese ‘Scientific whaling’ programme is not required for management or conservation of whale stocks and is never published in reputable scientific journals.
 * Many Japanese ‘research’ objectives are based on unsubstantiated or incorrect scientific assumptions. The few relevant research objectives they have (relating to population makeup etc) can be much better addressed using non-lethal methods (e.g. tagging, DNA profiling, and photo-ID etc), or by analysing a century’s worth of commercial catch statistics, plus data from the previous 20 years of Japan’s lethal research programme.
 * Most Japanese ‘research’ objectives are directed towards finding data to support a return to commercial whaling, and/or studies on how to make whaling more efficient.

Whales and whaling

 * Blue whales are the largest, and also the rarest whales. There were once 220,000 Blues in Southern Ocean, reduced to around 500 now (maybe 3000 worldwide) by past overhunting. This represents a reduction to approximately 0.2% of their original Antarctic population (or 1.5% worldwide). Despite being protected since the 1960s, their numbers have not recovered.
 * Minke whales are the commonest of the rorquals (‘Great whales’) – mainly because they are the smallest so have not been subjected to the same hunting pressure yet (they were not targeted by whalers until the 1970s when larger species became too rare). Recent estimates show there could already be as few as 250,000 Minkes from 3 different sub-species in the Southern Ocean, despite Japanese claims of close to 1 million.
 * The whales Japan hunts are the same ones that migrate past the coasts of NZ and Australia, and breed in the Pacific Islands. In addition to the ‘scientific’ whaling loophole Japanese whalers defy the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary declared in 1994 by killing them right in the heart of the protected area.
 * A lot of the legitimate science is disputed by Japan which comes up with its own (dubious) figures to justify the supposed sustainability of a continued kill. They also argue it is a cherished cultural tradition for Japanese people to keep killing whales - However a recent Japanese Newspaper poll found only 4% of Japanese regularly eat whale meat.
 * Massive industrial-scale Antarctic whaling 10,000 km from Japan is definitely not a tradition and only began around World War II when whale stocks around Japan were already commercially extinct (unviable for continued hunting). Whales were initially targeted by the Japanese for oil as a source of foreign currency!