Greenpeace comments on the standard letter sent out by the Japanese Embassy in response to letters from the public protesting at Japan's so-called 'scientific' whaling
Thank you for your letter to the Prime Minister. We appreciate your interest in whales and we are open to discussion on this subject.
If your protest is along the lines of "protect the endangered whale species", we are on the same ground. Japan strongly supports the international protection of endangered whale species such as blue whales. Regarding Japanese research on whales in the western Northern Pacific, it is true that it involves an annual sampling of 100 minke whales, 50 Bryde's whales, and 10 sperm whales. But, this level of sampling does not pose any risk to the current status of the whale stock. Minke whales have a population of 25,000, Bryde's whales have 22,000, and sperm whales number 102,000 in the research area. They are by no means endangered...
