Japanese recommends whale cull like kangaroo cull

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Japan urges whale 'pest' cull

By Natasha Bita

The Australian

March 01, 2003

 

RAMPANT whales are devastating Japan's fisheries and should be culled as

pests, the official in charge of the country's controversial whaling

program said yesterday.

 

Joji Morishita said the protected marine mammals were devouring at least

as much as Japan's entire fishing fleet could catch and they should be

slaughtered, just as plague-proportion kangaroo and deer populations

were targeted in Australia.

 

Mr Morishita said many Japanese even wanted to " retaliate " against

Australia and other countries that opposed whaling.

 

" Some people are saying Japan should go out of the International Whaling

Commission (which banned commercial whaling in 1986) and others say we

should use other tools available to us to retaliate against other

countries, " he said at a United Nations fisheries summit in Rome. Asked

if those tools might include trade sanctions, Mr Morishita laughingly

replied: " I don't think we have any good tools like the United States,

where you can threaten people with weapons.

 

" (But) the very general public thinks, why are we buying this huge

amount of grain or beef from countries that are opposing whaling? "

 

Japanese whalers killed 440 minke whales in Antarctic waters last year,

and in Japanese waters killed five sperm whales, 150 minkes, 39 Sei

whales and 50 Brydes whales.

 

The animals caught off Japan's coast were slaughtered so scientists

could examine their stomach contents before selling the lucrative meat.

But the meat from the sperm whales was so contaminated with mercury that

it was banned from sale.

 

" Our estimation indicates they are eating at least a comparable amount,

and sometimes much more than our fishermen are taking, " said Mr

Morishita, the deputy director of the Far Seas Fisheries division of

Japan's Fisheries Agency. He added that the fishing catch in Japanese

waters had almost halved in the past 15 years, and that Japan's fishing

fleet had decreased.

 

" We know that whales have increased, and there's a missing half of our

fish stocks somewhere, " he said. " That might be a result of

environmental changes or totally different reasons, but we cannot just

ignore the impact of allowing mammal predation in our fishing

operations. "

 

Mr Morishita said that fishermen believed it was time for a cull.

" We're not saying we should harvest all the whales, or that fisherman

should prevail, but we need a balance, " he said.

 

" We know in other countries deer and other animals are oftentimes culled

when there are too many and if they are competing with agriculture or

forestry or human activities. "

 

Mr Morishita said Australia was hypocritical for opposing whaling when

it allowed its own farmers to slaughter kangaroos.

 

" They are sold - I bought kangaroo jerky at Sydney airport. "

 

The Australian