(JP) As whaling continues, killing methods become focus of debate

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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

 

 

 

 

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