Guest guest Posted June 25, 2002 Report Share Posted June 25, 2002 http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/06/06252002/ap_47647.asp As whaling continues, killing methods become focus of debate Tuesday, June 25, 2002 By Mari Yamaguchi, Associated Press SHIMONOSEKI, Japan — The Whalegrenade-99 is a far cry from the hand-thrown harpoons of old. Fired from a powerful cannon, it is tipped with a red, stainless steel cartridge about two inches wide that contains 20 grams of the explosive penthrite. When the tip has penetrated about a foot into a whale, the penthrite detonates, creating temperatures of several thousand degrees. Death usually takes between two and three minutes. Along with the global movement over the past few decades to ban whaling altogether, there is a lower profile but equally intense debate over how whales might be hunted in a more humane manner. Antiwhaling activists don't want whales killed at all — but say if there is going to be hunting, the whales shouldn't have to suffer longer than necessary. The debate over killing methods is significant because, although commercial whaling has been banned since 1986, hundreds of whales are killed each year by aboriginal hunters and by staunchly pro-whaling countries such as Norway and Japan, which conducts hunts under a controversial research program. Few expect the killing to stop. Norway hunts whales commercially, though it doesn't export the meat, and has never consented to the International Whaling Commission ban. Critics have long accused Japan of using its research program as commercial whaling by another name. But Tokyo, which claims lethal hunts are necessary to accurately estimate whale populations, has the whaling commission's approval to continue them. So with no end in sight to that stalemate, whaling opponents have increasingly redirected their attention to another aspect of the battle: the time it takes for whalers to kill their prey. At a meeting of the International Whaling Commission last month in this southern port, whaling countries were pushed to work harder to reduce the time to death and to disclose more data on their kills. " The problem of killing whales has been nowhere resolved, and we are very concerned about time to kill, " said Britain's fisheries minister, Elliott Morley. " A great deal more needs to be done. " Pro-whaling countries stress that they, too, want to kill whales as painlessly as possible. " I think it's important that whales are harvested in a decent and humane manner, " said Odd Gunnar Skagestad, head of the Norwegian delegation. The time-to-death issue per se isn't new, and significant strides toward reducing the pain of hunted whales have been made. Norwegian officials say they have improved the weapons of whaling to the point that the death rate with the first harpoon strike was 80 percent among the 552 whales caught last year with the Whalegrenade-99. The average time from the first shot until death was 145 seconds. If the first harpoon fails to render the whale unconscious quickly, whalers shoot it in the head with a rifle. Japanese whalers, whose time to death averaged over three minutes, generally use an older, larger harpoon. At last month's whaling commission meeting Japan's delegation was grilled over why its whalers aren't faster. Japanese officials responded by demanding information on time to death in killing other mammals such as kangaroos or deer. Japan was also criticized by Britain and other antiwhaling countries for its coastal hunts. Instead of using state-of-the-art harpoons, these hunts often involve trapping small whales or dolphins in shallow bays, netting them, or dragging them along the shore. Tokyo's angry dismissal of the time-to-death criticism reflects the deep divide within the whaling commission between those countries that believe the group's ultimate goal should be to supervise commercial whaling and those that see it as phasing out whaling forever. " It's impossible to put a whale to death instantaneously, " said Hajime Ishikawa, a scientist at the Institute of Cetacean Research, which oversees the whaling program. " But people who know nothing about whaling grill us over a matter of one minute. Their intention is simply to advertise the cruelty of whaling. " Even so, Japan is considering replacing its harpoons with the Whalegrenade-99. The reason could be more one of marketing than of time to death, however. Byproducts of Japan's research are sold to fund the program, and much of the whale meat makes its way to restaurant tables or is canned and sold in supermarkets. Thus, along with getting samples useful for research, the quality of the meat for consumer use is also a concern. Japan's hunt of about 500 whales each year focuses on the relatively small minke species, so whalers had been reluctant to use explosive harpoons because of the damage to the flesh. The newer Norwegian harpoons reduce that damage. Japanese scientists have also improved freezing technology to keep whale meat as fresh as possible on the trip back from the Antarctic Ocean so that it can be served raw, as sashimi. Whaling opponents see that as progress in the wrong direction. " We don't see whales and dolphins as resources and food. We see them as complex species that play a very important role in the ecosystem, " said Margi Prideaux of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, an international animal protection group that lobbied at the whaling commission meeting. Copyright 2002, Associated Press - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup http://fifaworldcup. 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