(JP) Man who once hunted whales now wants them safe

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29_11

 

Man who once hunted whales now wants them safe

Sun May 12, 8:14 AM ET

By Elaine Lies

 

SHIMONOSEKI, Japan (Reuters) - For nearly two decades,

Shunzo Nagaoka roamed the world's most violent and

frigid seas hunting down and killing whales.

 

Now he believes they should be left in peace.

 

It's an unusual point of view at any time in

Shimonoseki, an old whaling centre 825 km (490 miles)

southwest of Tokyo.

 

And especially so now, when the city is hosting

meetings of the International Whaling Commission (news

- web sites) where Japan hopes to win support for the

lifting of a ban on commercial whaling.

 

Japan stopped commercial whaling in 1986 in line with

an IWC moratorium, but it is now campaigning for a

resumption.

 

To the outrage of environmentalists, who focus on

endangered species, Japan has carried out what it

calls " scientific research " whaling since 1987. Much

of the meat, though, ends up on supermarket shelves

and restaurant tables.

 

Some Japanese officials say whales have become so

numerous they are contributing to falling fish

landings and must be culled to keep the ocean ecology

in balance.

 

Others speak of hallowed cultural traditions that

include the consumption of whale meat.

 

Not Nagaoka.

 

" I really understand the conservationists and their

opposition, " he said. " I've seen whales killed, after

all.

 

" I am against whaling. It is a very cruel thing, " he

said, lingering near a photo exhibition at

Shimonoseki's fish market glorifying the city's

whaling past.

 

ELITE OF THE ELITE

 

Nagaoka, a spry 74-year old, is haunted by some

memories.

 

Most vividly, he remembers when a sperm whale was

killed before the whalers noticed a two-metre

(six-foot) calf swimming at its side.

 

" After the body of the parent whale was taken up on

the boat, the calf kept following after, following the

boat, " he said.

 

" I thought then that whaling was not a thing that

humans should be doing, " said Nagaoka.

 

Still, he said, in the dark years after World War Two,

a job was a job. Few men in their 20s, including

former submariner Nagaoka, could afford to pass up a

chance for steady work.

 

Nagaoka, whose home in Hiroshima was destroyed by the

atomic bomb, began working on whalers as an engineer

in the early 1950s, when Japan was just beginning to

recover from the poverty and food shortages that

followed its wartime defeat.

 

Whale was then a common food and key source of

protein.

 

" I really wanted to be on a cargo ship and see the

world, " said Nagaoka.

 

" But the money in whaling was good -- so good that the

only way you could get a job on the ships was if you

had connections.

 

" We were the elite of the elite. "

 

The work, though, was brutally hard and meant months

at sea away from families, travelling far in pursuit

of the immense mammals through rough seas and intense

cold.

 

Nagaoka said he went to the Antarctic at least a dozen

times.

 

They hunted various species, although Nagaoka

particularly remembers sperm whales, fin whales, and

sei whales. These, conservationists say, are now

endangered. Even so, Japan wants to add the sei to its

whaling programme for the next hunting season.

 

" When a whale was spotted from the top of the mast and

they called it down over the radio, the mood on the

ship got tense, very tense, " Nagaoka recalled.

" Everyone would go up on deck, and then we'd go after

the whales. "

 

HAZARDOUS WORK

 

The hunt was sometimes hazardous for humans as well.

 

" There were many dangers. Sometimes a whale would grow

violent, " Nagaoka said.

 

Towering grey waves, which caused injuries when

sailors were thrown to the deck or threatened to sweep

them away, were also an ever-present danger.

 

Eventually he quit, fulfilling his dream by landing a

job on a freighter that took him to ports around the

world.

 

In the three decades since leaving the whaling ship,

Nagaoka said he has not eaten even one bite of whale,

despite the fact that it is for sale virtually

anywhere in Shimonoseki, including in the fish market

only a few metres (yards) away.

 

In a city where whaling was woven so thoroughly into

local life that children were taken on school trips to

view the catch when whaling ships returned, the old

man has to keep quiet about his views. But he remains

adamant in his opposition.

 

" It is work that is killing animals, after all. It is

terrible. "

 

2002 Reuters Limited.

 

 

 

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