Researchers back from Antarctic no-kill whale trip

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Researchers back from Antarctic no-kill whale trip
By RAY LILLEY
The Associated Press
Monday, March 15, 2010; 2:58 AM

WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- Whale researchers returned from Antarctic waters Monday after a six-week expedition that they said proved Japan's annual kill of whales for scientific purposes is unnecessary.

During the voyage, Australian, French and New Zealand scientists used nonlethal techniques to study whales. It was a challenge to Japan's scientific program, which kills up to 1,000 of the mammals a year - an allowed exception to the International Whaling Commission's 1986 ban on commercial whaling.

Critics say the program is a front for commercial whaling, with the whale meat sold for consumption in Japan.

The expedition that ended Monday was the first in a five-year research program in Antarctica that was proposed by the Australian government and agreed to by the IWC.




Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/15/AR2010031500098.html

[xocet]

1. End Japanese Whaling....

For anyone who has seen Minke whales surfacing off of Ross Island (from the slopes of Ob Hill), it is very sad to read of their slaughter by the Japanese. The Japanese need to end their program or, if they are truly interested in science, update it to use nonlethal methods of study only.

[OneBlueSky]

2. "Critics say the program is a front for commercial whaling" . . .

duh . . . if there was ever a more blatant government lie, I don't know about it . . . and there have been some doozies . . .

I read recently that some U.S. restaurant or school or something was actually serving whale meat in their sushi . . . wonder where they imported it from . . .

[ProgressiveProfessor]

3. Many forget that the IWC rules *require* selling of the leftovers after the research is done

Doesn't mean I agree with it, but Japan is within the letter of the IWC rules

[Violet_Crumble]

4. They're lying about needing to kill whales for research...

I thought that was obvious to everyone...

[Omaha Steve]

5. R #5

[Owl]

6. News Flash: "Japanese research confirms that slaughtered whales are dead."

[Number9Dream]

7. IWC members admit to Japanese bribes

snip> In 2000, the Government of Dominica was thrown into crisis when the Minister of Environment, Agriculture and Fisheries, Atherton Martin, resigned in protest over the decision by Prime Minister Roosevelt Douglas to override a Cabinet decision to abstain on the IWC vote on creating a South Pacific whale sanctuary.

"They (Japan) announced that if they couldn't get Dominica to come along with them, they would have to place Dominican projects under review," Martin stated on BBC's Newsnight program. "If that is not extortion by the Japanese government, I don't know what it is. They are saying 'You either go with us or we pull the aid.'

snip> Martin, the former Environment and Fisheries Minister of Dominica, commented to the Observer that, "Small nations are enormously vulnerable to offers of aid. Through extortion with aid, Japan has been able to get many island nations to join the International Whaling Commission and vote its way."

snip> Later in 2001, the official newsletter of the Antigua and Barbuda government published an article entitled "Antigua Government Getting Returns." It cited a US $17 million fisheries grant from Japan as having come "as a direct result of its pro-whaling stance." Planning Minister Gaston Browne, when asked if Antigua's vote at the IWC was a factor in the grant, stated that, "If we were to antagonize them, I imagine that they would not be so anxious to assist us."

Link to more examples:

http://www.earthisland.org/immp/eco2004_issue4.html

[LeftHander]

10. Japanese Research Finding #2: Slaughtered Whales mourned by Pod...nt

[BrklynLiberal]

8. One can hope that THIS will finally put an end to the Japanese whale slaughter.

[Cetacea]

9. Their unexcusable actions towards whales is dwarfed only

by their barbaric slaughter of dolphins. This had better be the last year.
It's long past time they joined the rest of the countries observing the moratorium.

[Kajsa]

11. Research?

Right----

:eyes:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/03/11/california.whale.meat.charge/index.html

[DirkGently]

12. some weird anti-cetacean

psychology is going on with the Japanese, I think. Yes, their "scientific research" is transparently dishonest. Yes, they apparently bribe other nations to vote with them in the IWC.

But after viewing "The Cove" and Whale Wars, I think there is an oddly perverse motive or three behind the Japanese slaughter of both whales and dolphins. They don't need the meat (dolphin meat in particular is heavily contaminated with mercury, and whale meat is not that popular). They don't appear to make that much money at it, either.

I get the impression that 1) Japanese fisherman consider cetaceans to be "competitors" for the fish disapperaring due to Japanese overfishing, and 2) It's some kind of cultural defiance, wherein the government and the fishing industry (and not so much the Japanese people) simply refused to be "bullied" by international pressure from western countries with no (or a long past) tradition of whaling.

They're throwing some kind of weird tantrum, in my opinion.

[jimmil]

13. Whaling is large money to some...

"They don't need the meat (dolphin meat in particular is heavily contaminated with mercury, and whale meat is not that popular). They don't appear to make that much money at it, either."

They make a lot off of whales, at least according to "Whale Wars". For the smaller whales they said it brings in $100K and the larger whales $250K each. To the government that isn't a lot but to the fishermen it is worth literally millions. I do wish they would somehow make them shut down whaling. It is barbaric. The dolphin kill is absolutely horrible. Some people don't know but I think it is Denmark that has its own brand of "The Cove" where teenagers have to kill a dolphin to prove their manhood. Beating a trapped animal to death with a club appears to be the ultimate aphrodisiac to young maidens there. "Owwww Hans, what a big club you have."

[DirkGently]

14. I'm sure that's true

... to some extent. But I keep seeing references to the Japanese government subsidizing the whalers, e.g.

Massive cuts to subsidy may force an end to Japanese whaling
November 12 2009. A major review of Japanese government spending could spell the end to whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, according to Greenpeace, after the review committee proposed massive cuts in subsidies to a body which funds the so-called scientific research programme.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/japanese-whaling931.html#cr


... so I'm looking for another explanation for the incredible ferocity shown by the whalers / dolphin killers. The Cove, for example, documented an effort to justify or sustain the dolphin slaughter by feeding the meat to schoolchildren. Local officials, who appeared to be under a lot of pressure to agree, ultimately rejected the proposal due to the excessive mercury contamination, which the Japanese have experienced to devasting effect before.

I also found it odd that in street interviews, most Japanese expressed amazement that whale and dolphin meat was even for sale in Japan.

Putting these things together, it's just my personal armchair psychology intuition that whale and dolphin slaughter is something only a certain, narrow segment of Japan wants, perhaps for profit, and perhaps in part out of the same intractable bloody-mindedness that characterized the way Japan conducted itself during wartime.

That's weird with the Danes. Scandanavian culture is a complete mystery to me. Every tidbit I run across seems contradictory and alien. Peaceful and egalitarian ... but sometimes prone to xenophobia and even Nazism; exceedingly calm -- even boring -- but also home to the freakiest of death metal music. Go figure.

[MisterP]

15. and of course this raises the question of whether whales should be killed, even if it WERE necessary

for research (I mean, we can't load vans full of unwanted newborns and deep-coma and severe-dementia patients and test tissue-regrowing techniques on them--even though they have bad memory, few conscious faculties, and short lifespans outside of captivity, so anything we did would be "legit" in the eyes of the all-for-SCIENCE! types)

[Duppers]

16. K & R

nt