Japan decides to go back to Antartica for whaling.

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http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2006/s2743.htm

 

 

U.S. PROTESTS JAPAN'S ANNOUNCED RETURN TO WHALING IN THE ANTARCTIC

 

Nov. 16, 2006 — The United States expressed deep regrets that Japan's

whaling fleet departed on November 15th to continue a controversial

hunt for research purposes in the Antarctic. Japan has announced that

it will kill up to 935 minke whales and ten fin whales under a

special provision of the International Whaling Commission that many

nations believe is a loophole for banned commercial whaling. (Click

NOAA image for larger view of minke whale. Please credit " NOAA. " )

 

" We are very concerned that this scientific whaling program in the

IWC's Southern Ocean Sanctuary is a further expansion of lethal

research on Antarctic minke whales and fin whales. " said Bill

Hogarth, U.S. Commissioner to the IWC and director of the NOAA

Fisheries Service. " These catches will only increase the growing

friction within the IWC over how to deal with the expanding

scientific whaling by Japan. The United States views the current

Japanese research plan as unnecessary for managing the whales in

question. Almost all research objectives can be achieved by using non-

lethal techniques. "

 

Background

The United States has long opposed Japan's lethal research whaling as

unnecessary and undermining the IWC's conservation program. It is

very concerned about changes in the scale and nature of Japan's

research whaling; Japan's whaling far exceeds all previous scientific

hunts over the 59-year history of the IWC.

 

In 2005, Japan began a new, long-term research program in the

Antarctic (known as JARPA II) without having first analyzed the

results of its prior 18-year research program (JARPA I), which

included the killing of thousands of Antarctic minke whales. Under

JARPA II, Japan is more than doubling its harvest of Antarctic minke

whales to about 935, and including the take of two new whale stocks—

fin whales and humpback whales.

 

Japan is currently subject to ongoing certifications under the Pelly

Amendment to the Fishermen's Protective Act because its whaling

activities continue to undermine the effectiveness of the whaling

convention and the IWC.

 

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