Japan relying on out-of-date data for hunts of small cetaceans
The Dall's Porpoise is the most extensively hunted in Japan
Japan's hunts threaten some dolphins and whales with extinction, says EIA.
(The EIA is an independent, international campaigning organisation committed to investigating and exposing environmental crime.)
Japan relying on out-of-date data for hunts of small cetaceans, putting some populations of whales, dolphins and porpoises at risk, warns Environmental Investigation Agency
Japan's hunts of smaller whales, dolphins and porpoises threaten some populations with extinction, an environmental group said on Thursday. Catch quotas are based on data collected as much as 20 years ago and some populations have been overhunted beyond the point of recovery, the Environmental Investigation Agency said in its report. The lucrative market in live catches for aquariums, especially in China, poses another risk, the report said. Live animals can sell for between $8,400 and $98,000, more than 10 times the $500gained from sales of meat from a single dolphin.
Japan set its catch limit for small cetaceans at 16,655 in 2013, far below the 30,000 caught annually before limits were set in 1993 but still the largest hunt in the world. Japan's Fisheries Agency would not comment on the EIA report because it has not seen it. Japan defends its coastal whaling as a longstanding tradition, source of livelihood and as necessary for scientific research. The London-based independent conservation group said Japan is failing to observe its stated goal of sustainability and urged the country to phase out the hunts over the next decade. "The government has a responsibility to restore and maintain cetacean species at their former levels," said Jennifer Lonsdale, a founding director of the EIA.
The small cetaceans are among a number of species facing severe declines in Japan. They include Japanese eels, a delicacy usually served roasted with a savoury sauce over rice, and torafugu, or puffer fish. The status of each species varies, depending on its range and hunting practices. Catch limits for Dall's porpoises are 4.7-4.8 times higher than the safe threshold, the report said. For the striped dolphin, once the mainstay of the industry but now endangered and disappearing from some areas, catches have dropped from over 1,800 in the 1980s to about 100.
That is still four times the sustainable limit, the report said. It urged that the government update its data on the abundance of it and other species and stop transferring quotas from already overfished areas to areas that exceed their quotas. nder a 1946 treaty regulating whaling, nations can grant permits to kill whales for scientific research. In July, Japan defended its annual harpooning of hundreds of whales in the icy seas around Antarctica, insisting the hunt is legal because it gathers valuable scientific data that could pave the way to a resumption of sustainable whaling in the future. Australia has appealed to the international court of justice to have the whaling outlawed.
------------------
There was an interesting back and forth in the comments, so I copied and pasted some here.
IeyasuTokugawa
What garbage is this?
And who is this "Environmental Investigation Agency" with the misleadingly official sounding name? Some ideologically motivated do-gooders trying to tap into the lucrative "save the cute whales and dolphins" bonanza. Kick up a stint and manufacture a non-existent crisis about a legal and sustainable harvest and watch the donations come rolling in. Pathetic.
Away with you, greedy hippies. We'll rely on the official data provided by the scientists rather than your Free Willy inspired fictional crisis nonsense. Get your money and kicks else where.
quokkaZ to IeyasuTokugawa
Oh, it's a "sustainable harvest" is it? Whatever happened to "scientific research"?
Shannon Ribbons to IeyasuTokugawa
Yes, leave us alone to slaughter possibly the most intelligent sea creatures on this planet."
What 'science' studies advanced lifeforms by harpooning them? Thats on the level of a 5 year old slicing open a cat to see what makes it purr. What have your 'scientists' found, by the way? A dead Dolphin can't swim very fast? A dead Dolphin doesn't make a very good conversation partner? A dead Dolphin tastes good? Ah - thats it... lets keep killing them just to make sure. I look forward to reputable peer-reviewed articles published by your 'scientists' which will enlighten me out of my barbaric hippy ignorance.
If the future evolution of the human race into anything capable of flourishing depends on empathy I'm afraid your type will fail. If it doesn't then we're all fucked but either case no way would I ever consider myself in the same stinking blood and entrails strewn boat as you.
IeyasuTokugawa to quokkaZ
The two are not mutually exclusive.
IeyasuTokugawa to Shannon Ribbons
I fear it would take more than all the peer reviewed articles in the world to enlighten you out of your barbaric hippie ignorance. Because said ignorance is actually a source of personal identity and provides you with a sense of superiority and righteousness. This goes into overdrive when you encounter someone like me and you can finally spray your righteous indignation about the place and then wallow in the warm glow of your indignant moral superiority.
So really, perhaps you should be thankful for "my type"? Without us, you're just another big polluting American/Briton/Australian churning through the planet's resources faster than any other human being in history. Hmm?
borboleta to IeyasuTokugawa
The arrogance of the Japanese Fishing Agency is well represented by this comment.
These people operate on another level from us` hippies` they look down on our ignorance and happily slaughter highly intelligent endangered wild animals of the seas simply because they conveniently see it is their right.
I truly hope that The Hague Court rules in favour of Australia to stop the yearly carnage of whales in Antarctica, not that Japan will accept this sitting down, humility isn`t part of their vocabulary.
IeyasuTokugawa to borboleta
So wait, what happens if we do suddenly come around to your point of view and start arbitrarily declaring some animals to be special and "highly intelligent endangered wild animals"? Like chickens for instance. Will you comply with our indignant outrage and cease all chicken slaughter?
Or, will you assume us to have adopted a hypocritical, baseless and arbitrary opinion based on nothing more than emotive nonsense and ignore us appropriately?
ID0967872 to IeyasuTokugawa
I love how you confess your complete epistemically ignorance as to what the "environmental investigation agency is" only to then go on a rant to answer your question based on nothing but your extremist assumptions which you pull out of thin air. Also since when is official data especially when it's from Japanese gov scientists who are beholden to interests other than whale sustainability in any way authoritative and reliable. How do you know this report is not in fact carried out by independent skilled scientists who actually place whale conservation above other interests?
borboleta to IeyasuTokugawa
Err, I believe there are a very few wild chickens being hunted to extinction.
Her we go again same old arguments comparing the slaughter of wild animals to livestock.
You really don`t have many arguments left do you?
IeyasuTokugawa to borboleta
Very few wild chickens being hunted to extinction indeed. Funny you should mention, because there are no whales being hunted into extinction at all. None whatsoever.
Fancy that, huh?
ID0967872 to IeyasuTokugawa
The problem with your fallacious world view here is that since when have all animals been the same? Sometimes the incorrect view gets put forward that there is us human beings and then there are others animals all lumped into one group as though they are all somehow the same. This is typical narrow minded fallacious anthropocentrism. For the simple fact of the matter is that animals are not all the same they are all completely diff with diff nervous systems emotional and social intelligences and make ups etc. ie there is a reason that when I sit in my chair in the evening I have a dog at my feet and not a cow (I disagree with eating dog incidentally). If we start to reflect on the reasons why this is the case we can see that our different treatments of different animals is not arbitrary. All animals have different needs from one another. The wests treatment of its livestock is something that needs to be vastly improved.
IeyasuTokugawa to ID0967872
Ok then. So who gets to decide which are the special animals with emotional and social intelligence etc? Let me guess, is it you?
And who must abide by the arbitrary decisions made by you as to which are the special animals? Let me guess, is it us?
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/31/japan-hunts-dolphins-whales-extinction
TOXIC CATCH:
Japan’s unsustainable and
irresponsible whale, dolphin
and porpoise hunts
PDF
http://www.eia-international.org/wp-content/uploads/EIA-Toxic-Catch-report-FINAL.pdf
= new reply since forum marked as read
On a side note, it's interesting how the spokesman for the whale & dolphin slaughterers
sounds like some of the people who promote exactly the same viewpoint on this group.
Maybe you just missed the post ... better kick it.
There again, maybe you've had your usual alerts dismissed by people who believe
that discussion is better than censorship?
The "you" in my previous response was directed to the pro-slaughter supporters,
(who most definitely exist and who most definitely alert posts they dislike) rather
than "you" as in "Beringia, the OP writer" ... sorry for not being clear.
