(JP) Cull whales, avoid waste: researcher

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http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20020514b7.htm

 

Cull whales, avoid waste: researcher

 

By MICK CORLISS

Staff writer

 

With decades of whale research under his belt, Seiji

Ohsumi, director general of the Institute of Cetacean

Research, was around when Japan ceased commercial

whaling and is now at the forefront of the nation's

push to resume the program.

 

To the dismay of many environmental groups and some

governments, Japan has decided to increase by its

annual catch of North Pacific minke to 150 by taking

50 along the Japanese coast, roughly between Miyagi

Prefecture and Hokkaido, while maintaining its catch

of 440 minke from the South Pacific.

 

" Our major goal is to determine exactly what minke

whales along the coast are eating, " Ohsumi said.

 

The institute, established by the government in 1987,

estimates that whales eat between 280 million to 500

million tons of fish a year, out-eating the roughly 90

million tons netted annually by humans.

 

" There is strong dissatisfaction among fishermen, "

Ohsumi said. " Whales devour the fish and get in their

way. They are requesting that the whales be culled.

 

" To consider whether this is necessary, we need hard

scientific data, such as these survey results. "

 

Ohsumi shrugs off concerns about exploiting stocks of

minke whales, saying the population in the North

Pacific is estimated at 25,000, and growing at a rate

of around 1,000 head a year. " There is no way this

could have a negative effect on (minke whales) as a

resource, " Ohsumi said. In fact, he said, whales

should be culled so as not to waste them.

 

" With resources like steel, you can leave them and use

them in the future, " Ohsumi said. " But in the case of

animal resources, if you leave them be, then they go

to waste. "

 

Ohsumi likens whales to interest earned on savings.

" Wildlife resources have the ability to reproduce, " he

continued. " We can use that ability like money in the

bank and live off of the interest. "

 

He also brushed off concerns that whale meat is

dangerously polluted. Meat from sperm whales, caught

amid a barrage of international criticism last year,

did not make it to store shelves due to high mercury

levels. However, if the meat is processed in a way

that removes the fat, Ohsumi said, it could meet

government standards.

 

In 1962, during Japan's whaling heyday, consumers

wolfed down 220,000 tons of whale meat. Today,

Japanese eat 4,500 tons. Just over 50 percent of that

comes from research whaling, while the rest comes from

coastal catches of whales other than the 13 kinds of

large whales overseen by the International Whaling

Commission, he said.

 

Ohsumi is confident that if the ban on whaling is

lifted, whale meat will regain some of its former

popularity.

 

" There will be no resolutions calling for (Japan to)

restrain or rethink its whaling program " if prowhaling

members secure a majority in Shimonoseki, he said. " On

the contrary, there may be resolutions pushing for

whaling. "

 

The Japan Times: May 14, 2002

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