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Japan targets up to 60 whales
The Japanese fisheries agency said recently up to 60 minke whales in the north Pacific Ocean will be caught in the coming month for research.
Five boats will be dispatched this week off northern Japan for the research mission that will run through late May.
The agency said researchers will study the whales’ dietary intake and the data will be used to analyze the whale population’s impact on fishery resources.
Japan kills more than 1,000 whales a year under an International Whaling Commission clause allowing whaling for scientific research, despite a 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling.
The country’s whaling expeditions are conducted by The Institute of Cetacean Research, a private nonprofit group funded by the government and Kyodo Senpaku, a for-profit company that processes and sells whale products.
Critics say Japan’s missions are a guise for commercial whaling and have repeatedly called on the government to stop the whale hunts.
Earlier this year activists aggressively pursued and harassed Japan’s fleet in waters near Antarctica, where Japanese whalers kill about 900 minke whales a year.
About 100 minke whales are killed in the north Pacific.
Japan has staunchly defended its whaling activities, arguing the hunts are critical for research and that whaling is part of its food culture, although few Japanese today eat whale meat on a regular basis.
A February poll by the national Asahi newspaper showed nearly two-thirds of Japanese support the country’s whaling program.
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