Japan hosts IWC in whaling city

[Guest guest]

Personal note: Mark well Japan's insistence on their " cultural " need. This

is what the anti-whaling protesters have been saying all along about the

Makah whale hunt: it opens the door to the return to commercial whaling

under the guise of native rights.

 

Dian

 

http://story.news./news?tmpl=story & u=/ap/20020418/ap_on_bi_ge/japan

_whaling_conference_1

 

Japan to Host Whaling Conference

Thu Apr 18,12:55 AM ET

By ERIC TALMADGE, Associated Press Writer

 

SHIMONOSEKI, Japan (AP) - Although the International

Whaling Commission (news - web sites) banned

commercial whaling 16 years ago, when its delegates

gather in this southern port they won't have to go far

to find a bowl of whale soup, or a plate of whale

sashimi.

 

Frustrated by the global whaling ban, which it has

strongly criticized for years, Japan has chosen to

host the annual IWC meeting later this month in what

used to be the heart of its commercial whaling

industry.

 

But while Japan's delegates once again argue for the

immediate lifting of the ban, Mariko Fujino and other

whale merchants will be in a fish market just down the

street doing what they do every morning,

selling whale meat.

 

Despite the commercial ban, they've got a lot to sell.

 

Inside Fujino's refrigerated display case are dark

gray chunks of whale fluke that go for as much as

45,000 yen a kilogram ($200 a pound). She has whale

bacon, whale blubber with or without a layer

of skin on top; and bright red blocks of whale

sashimi.

 

" Whale is so delicious, " Fujino said. " Why would

anyone tell us to stop eating it? "

 

Officials hope that holding the IWC meeting in

Shimonoseki, a former center of commercial whaling

that is now home port of Japan's research whaling

fleet, will be an eye-opener for the commission.

Fujino and other whale merchants get their supply of

whale meat from the research fleet's catch.

 

" We want the delegates to see our history as a whaling

nation, " said Makoto Arizono, a fisheries official

with the local government. " We want their

understanding. "

 

This year's IWC meeting, the first in Japan in nine

years, is to begin with scientific committee

discussions from April 25. The plenary meeting is to

be held from May 20-24.

 

Shimonoseki is already decked out in its IWC best.

 

At night, the main hotel by the convention center

lights up with a whale likeness across several of its

upper floors. Banners welcoming the delegations from

the 41-nation IWC line the main streets.

 

More striking, however, is the easy availability of

whale here.

 

There are perhaps dozens of whale restaurants in town,

several within walking distance of the convention

center. Whale products, including whale meat

sausage, are sold at the nearest airport.

 

Officials point out that the trade is legal.

 

Japan's research program, under which several hundred

of the mammals are killed annually, provides whale

merchants with a dependable, year-round supply of just

about any cut the discerning Japanese gourmet might

desire.

 

Anti-whaling groups have long criticized the research

program as a thinly disguised means of keeping Japan's

whaling fleet afloat.

 

" Japan's research whaling program is essentially no

different from commercial whaling, " said Junko Sakurai

of Greenpeace Japan. " They are only conducting the

kind of research that gives them whale meat. There are

other ways, such as observation. "

 

Even so, the killing of whales for research purposes

is allowed under the IWC's own rules, which also

provide for the meat to then be sold. Much of the

proceeds go to the nonprofit, government-backed

institute that is in charge of the research program.

 

But while the research catch provides tons of whale

byproducts to traders each year, Japan has argued that

the market should be much bigger, and there is no

reason why the commercial ban should stand. Officials

here say the ban infringes on its " cultural right " to

choose whether or not to eat whale.

 

Though they are not expected to muster the

three-fourths majority needed to end the ban, Japanese

officials believe they have a solid scientific case to

resume the commercial killing of whales as well.

 

The population of many whale species has increased so

much, they say, that the sheer volume of food they

need has actually become a threat to the ocean

environment. Whales eat approximately 250 to 500

million metric tons of fish each year, which is from

three to six times the total amount fished by humans.

 

Posters already up in Shimonoseki show a voracious

whale sucking the fish from a watery globe. Under the

whale a caption said, " We can't put up with this. "

 

One leading fisheries expert, Joji Morishita, even

suggested in a book that recent beachings of whales

may be the result of an ecological imbalance created

by their excessive numbers.

 

Not all experts agree with that line of reasoning, but

many acknowledge that some whale species are plentiful

enough to absorb limited kills.

 

There are an estimated 760,000 minke whales in the

Antarctic Ocean, according to the IWC's scientific

committee, which acknowledges that the 400 or 500

killed under Japan's annual research program represent

little threat to the survival of the species itself.

 

In the minds of many whaling opponents, the threat of

extinction is no longer the issue.

 

" We are against a lifting of the ban on commercial

whaling regardless of the extent of whale population

recovery, " said Nanami Kurasawa of the Dolphin and

Whale Action Network, one of several anti-whaling

groups that are planning protests here ahead of the

IWC meeting.

 

" Whales are part of nature that humans should not

touch, " she said.

 

2002 The Associated Press. All rights

reserved.

 

 

 

 

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