Japanese Whalers Begin Hunt for 260 Whales

4/10/2003

From: Jennifer Ferguson-Mitchell of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, 508-744-2076 or jfm@ifaw.org

TOKYO, Japan, April 10 -- A whaling fleet of six Japanese ships are expected to leave port by the end of this week, as part of the first phase of their plan to hunt 260 whales, the Japanese Fisheries Agency has announced. The news comes just days after the return of whaling ships that killed 440 whale, and despite worldwide criticism from governments and conservation groups including the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW - www.ifaw.org).

Japan's current whale hunting plan calls for today's departing fleet to kill 50 minke whales along the country's northeast coast, in a hunt that is scheduled to last 40 days. In May, the fleet will depart again, this time for a three-month hunt in the eastern North Pacific, where it will kill 100 minke, 50 Bryde's, 50 sei, and 10 sperm whales.

Since an IWC moratorium on commercial whaling came into effect in 1986, Japan has continued whaling under the pretext of "scientific research," despite the fact that the whale meat ends up on dinner plates in high-end Tokyo restaurants, little scientific data has been shared by the government with the international community.

Last year, Japan announced it would expand its annual hunt to include endangered sei whales and increase numbers of minke whales to be killed, outraging conservationists worldwide.

Despite international condemnation for its whaling programs, Japan continues to lobby strongly, but not successfully, for legalized international commercial whaling. In May 2002, Japan failed to secure the support of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) at its Shimonoseki, Japan meeting.

The Japanese government then sought to end-run the IWC by submitting proposals to downlist the protected status of minke and Bryde's whale species under the U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which met in Santiago, Chile in November 2002. Japan's proposals all failed to be passed or to even garner a simple majority vote.

"Japan is undermining decades of environmental conservation efforts. It's just outrageous and unacceptable that they continue to hunt whales," said Fred O'Regan, IFAW President. "What we need now is for the international community to send a strong message of opposition to Japan - trade agreements should be questioned, effort should be put into building the country's growing whale watching industry not its subsidized whale hunts, and Japan's political role in the international community should be reevaluated."

For more information on IFAW's global whale campaign and how you can join the campaign to Stop Whaling Now, go to www.ifaw.org.

------ Editors: For more information visit www.ifaw.org