BBC Website - Whaling

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Japan in plan to expand whaling

 

Anti-whaling groups claim Japan already kills too many whales

Japan is proposing to expand its controversial whaling research

programme.

The plan would see Japan nearly double its catch of minke whales and

start catching humpback and fin whales.

 

The plan will be submitted to the International Whaling Commission in

May, though it does not need approval.

 

Any increase in whaling will anger international lobby groups, who

say Japan's research programme circumvents a ban on commercial

whaling.

 

A spokeswoman for the International Whaling Commission (IWC) said it

had received the Japanese proposal.

 

According to sources cited by Japan's Kyodo news agency, the new plan

is based on Japan's argument that there is a need to increase hunting

activities in order to analyze the ecosystem of the Antarctic Ocean.

 

An official from Japan's Fisheries Agency told the news agency there

was " a need to consider surveying such whales... given that there has

been an increase in the number of sightings " .

 

But the official added that further details of the proposal could not

be disclosed before the IWC meeting.

 

Japan's research whaling programme has caused controversy since its

inception in 1987, just a year after the IWC banned commercial

whaling.

 

Critics say that Japan is using the excuse of scientific research

into whales as a pretext to continue selling, and eating, whale meat.

 

The meat from the animals killed during the research programme is

sold commercially.

 

Whale meat is seen as a delicacy in Japan, and officials in Tokyo

maintain that the tradition is an important part of the nation's

cultural heritage.

 

Each year Japan kills about 400 minke whales, as well as a smaller

number of Bryde's whales, sei whales and sperm whales.