Japan stands by its renewed 'scientific' whale slaughter

Japan stands by its renewed 'scientific' whale slaughter
Justin Norrie, Tokyo
November 24, 2007

LUIS Pastene's name is virtually unknown in the anti-whaling countries of the Western world. But the Chilean-born marine biologist feels their wrath every November when Japan's whaling fleet sets out on another expedition to cull hundreds of whales in the name of science.

"I'm getting so tired of the biased articles I read in Western newspapers each year at this time," says Dr Pastene, who supervises nine scientists studying whale samples at Tokyo's Institute of Cetacean Research.

It is the work his team does here that drives Japan's "scientific whaling" program, and in turn provokes international outrage. Invariably, he says, the substance of his research is lost amid invective from activists. "It's time someone told the truth," he insists.

The truth, in simple terms, is that Japan's giant 8030-tonne factory ship, the Nisshin Maru, and three smaller whaling boats, left last Sunday for the Antarctic Ocean on the biggest scientific whale hunt in history. The fleet is intent on slaughtering as many as 935 minke whales, 50 fin whales, and, crucially, 50 of the vulnerable humpback whales protected by an international moratorium since 1966.

Most slaughtered whales 'pregnant'
July 24, 2007

More than half the whales killed by Japanese whalers in the Antarctic last summer were pregnant, the Humane Society International (HSI) said today.

The group said that of the 505 Antarctic minke whales killed, 262 of them were pregnant females, while one of the three giant fin whales killed was also pregnant.

The findings came from a review of Japanese reports from their most recent 2006-07 whale hunt in Antarctic waters and were released ahead of the resumption of a Federal Court case the HSI is taking against Japanese whaling company Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha Ltd.

Japanese whalers take hundreds of whales each year in Antarctic waters for so-called scientific study purposes.

"These are gruesome statistics that the Japanese government dresses up as science", HSI spokeswoman Nicola Beynon said in a statement.

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http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/most-slaughtered-whales-pregnant/2007/07/24/1185043072017.html