Ignoring the wishes of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), the international body which regulates whaling, the Fisheries Agency of Japan have sent a whaling fleet into the North Pacific to take a self allocated quota of 160 sperm, Bryde's and minke whales. This is the second expanded "scientific" hunt in the North Pacific since the IWC met in July 2000.
In a bid to avoid media attention, three catcher ships set out yesterday (10 May) from three different ports - Shimonoseki, Innoshima, and Shiogama. The factory ship is expected to depart from Hiroshima today (11 May).
The IWC does not endorse the hunt and has strongly urged Japan to call it off.
"This hunt has nothing to do with science, it is about making money," said Richard Page Greenpeace Whales Campaigner, noting that the last summer's hunt had concentrated on Bryde's whales, the species with the highest commercial value. "When they return, the Fisheries Agency of Japan will tell us that they have discovered that these species of whales eat fish. We already know that. They have been eating fish for tens of millions of years."
The Japanese Fisheries Agency has defended "research" whaling as essential to finding out how whales affect the world's fishery resources. But it is already well known that the problems of declining fish stocks are caused by over fishing and decades of fisheries mis- management.
"Last summer they 'discovered' that sperm whales eat squid," said Page. "But this has been known for at least a century. Blaming whales for decades of fisheries mis-management and over-fishing by humans is obviously ludicrous".
"This whaling fleet returned from its annual catch in the Antarctic less than a month ago. This voyage in the North Pacific will be the third Japanese whaling expedition conducted against the wishes of the IWC in the last 12 months. Greenpeace calls on the government of Japan to stop defying the IWC and to cancel plans for this catch."
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