(JP) Whale meat from research expedition hits market

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AP World Politics

 

Whale meat from research expedition hits market

Tue Dec 10, 6:59 AM ET

 

TOKYO - Meat from whales killed during Japan's latest

research expedition has hit the market, an official

said Tuesday.

 

Despite a 1986 global ban on commercial whaling, Japan

still kills hundreds of the mammals each year as part

of a research program it says is necessary to study

whale migration, populations and feeding habits.

 

The meat is sold to wholesalers and much of it ends up

in restaurants, while profits from the sales are

pumped back into the research program.

 

Critics call the program commercial whaling in

disguise.

 

The frozen meat went on sale beginning Monday, a

spokeswoman at the government-linked Institute of

Cetacean Research said.

 

A total of 409 tons of the meat, coming from 194

whales, are to be distributed to wholesale markets in

Japan through next March, the institute said in a

statement.

 

This year's catch of 100 minke, 50 Bryde's, 39 sei and

five sperm whales was made in a three-month expedition

ending September.

 

Meat from the minke and Bryde's whales will sell for

2,600 yen (US$21) per kilogram (2.2 pounds). The price

for sei meat has been set at 2,800 yen ($23) per

kilogram.

 

Whale hunters stopped catching sei whales 26 years

ago, when they were deemed nearly extinct. Japan began

targeting sei again last year, however, saying there

were enough of the species to allow for limited hunts

for research.

 

The Fisheries Agency said data it collected during

previous expeditions showed there were as many as

28,000 of the whales — which can grow to a length of

between 12 and 15 meters (40 to 50 feet) — in the

northern Pacific.

 

Japan also conducts whaling expeditions in the

Antarctic, where a separate expedition headed in

November to kill about 400 minke whales.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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