New York Times on Japan's Whale hunt

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Japan Widens Whale Hunt, Provoking Objections

 

By Andrew Revkin

The New York Times

Saturday, July 29, 2000

 

Despite strong objections, Japan plans to send its

whaling fleet into the North Pacific today to hunt sperm

whales and Bryde's whales, two rare and little-understood

species, along with minke whales, a more common variety.

 

It is acting under a research program that is opposed by

many countries and by private environmental groups.

 

An international moratorium on commercial whaling took

effect in 1986, but under a provision that allowed some

killing for scientific research, Japan began harvesting

several hundred minke whales a year. The meat has been

sold to Japanese consumers, for whom it is a delicacy.

 

That effort has been criticized by many countries as

commercial whaling by another name, but the annual take

of minkes was largely tolerated by other governments

because the species is abundant.

 

Yesterday, though, Washington and London reacted with

anger after Japan said it would harvest two species that

were nearly hunted to extinction by fleets of factory

ships in recent decades. President Clinton and Prime

Minister Tony Blair of Britain have been prominent

critics of the expanded hunting.

 

Particularly vexing to the Clinton administration was the

resumption of plans to kill sperm whales, the type

immortalized in " Moby-Dick. "

 

" This is really an aggressive move by Japan, " said

Rolland Schmitten, the deputy assistant secretary of

commerce for international affairs, after a meeting with

Japanese officials at the White House. " We let them know

that we opposed this at the highest level. These whales

do not have to be killed for the science. We were

prepared to work with them on nonlethal ways to collect

the same information. "

 

The Japanese officials agreed to reduce the total harvest

to 100 whales from a planned take of 160, administration

officials said. But the rarer species were not dropped

from the plan.

 

White House officials said Mr. Clinton would consider

using trade sanctions to try to dissuade Japan from

carrying out its whaling plan. They said Secretary of

State Madeleine K. Albright planned to discuss the matter

on a visit to Japan today.

 

Yesterday, the Japanese Embassy in Washington issued a

statement saying the purpose was to study the diet and

ecology of the animals. The statement said sperm and

Bryde's whales would be included " because their

populations are relatively abundant and in good

condition. "

 

The decision comes three weeks after the International

Whaling Commission, a 54-year-old group of former and

current whaling countries, rejected the Japanese plan to

expand its scientific whale hunt to include the new

species.

 

The group's scientific committee said that Japan's

research plan was flawed and that most of the data could

be obtained without killing whales.

 

P. J. Crowley, a spokesman for the National Security

Council, said, " While they are technically allowed under

international law to do this, it's our view that the

world is moving in one direction in terms of conservation

and Japan appears to be moving in a different direction. "

 

As word of Japan's decision spread, private environmental

groups reacted harshly, saying Japan's true motive was to

pave the way for a resumption of full-scale commercial

whaling.

 

They said the hunting of the new species, which are much

larger than minke whales, would require the use of

factory-style ships that had essentially been in

mothballs since the moratorium began.

 

A few sperm whales have been hunted sporadically by

aboriginal groups around the world, but this would be the

first large-scale harvest, many groups said.

 

" This decision by Japan is a slap in the face of

President Clinton, Prime Minister Blair and many others

around the world who have been working to persuade Japan

to cancel its plans, " said Fred O'Regan, president of the

International Fund for Animal Welfare, which studies

whale populations.

 

Some environmental groups said they feared that the

Japanese move could unravel a consensus that with a few

exceptions had ended large-scale whaling. Norway hunts

minke whales, and Finland and Iceland have conducted

research on whaling in the past.

 

Richard Mott, vice president at the World Wildlife Fund,

said, " This hints at a return to the kind of factory ship

whaling that was responsible for the near-extinction of

many species of whales in the first place. "

 

Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the

educational purposes of research and open discussion.