Stop pseudo-scientific whaling

This video says about itself:

MS Expedition Antarctic Whales!

The passengers of the M/S Expedition ooh and ah as two Humpback Whales play around the ship.

Warning: people of a delicate disposition may want to turn the sound off

Humpback Whale Close Encounter Off California Coast Captured By Photographer (PHOTOS): here.

By Peter Frost:

Frosty’s Ramblings: Rise of the whale hunt

Thursday 12 July 2012

South Korea said this week it may “reconsider” its plan to start hunting whales again.

That’s good news, though it’s not a battle won and those who wish to preserve these magnificent animals will need to keep up the pressure.

I’ve long been fond of whales. Each spring thousands of them head south down the east coast of Australia. Last year my wife Ann and I were lucky enough to spend a holiday following them in a campervan.

These enormous and highly intelligent creatures had spent the winter giving birth to their calves in the tropical waters off northern Australia. They were now heading for the rich krill-feeding ground that is the Antarctic in summer.

On the way south we spotted many playful family groups from beaches and headlands along the coast.

Most were humpbacks, some up to 50 feet long and weighing 35 tons – that’s heavier than three double-decker buses.

Even larger were the southern right whales, cynically named by the early whalers because it was the “right” whale to catch – they often floated when killed.

Most spectacular but less common on the route were the 60-foot sperm whales, the biggest predators on the planet.

We’ve been lucky enough to see whales all over the world – New England and New Zealand, California, Norway, Iceland and the Faroe Islands.

Nearer home we actually reckon you can’t beat Shetland and Britain’s other northern isles to see whales and other cetacean species.

On one occasion we had just loaded our campervan on the Sunday lunchtime ferry between Shetland’s mainland and the island of Yell. Five minutes out the captain made a curious announcement.

“Can I ask if anyone is in a hurry?” his voice crackled over the speaker, “because I’ve just seen a pod of orcas and if nobody is in a rush I think we should take a closer look.”

Much later we docked on Yell. It is normally only a 20-minute trip but we had spent over an hour with six amazing killer whales.

That’s why I was really angry earlier this month when South Korea announced it was to resume hunting whales under regulations permitting scientific research.

South Korea is using the same dubious excuse as Japan.

Once a small so-called scientific sample of the whale has been taken the remaining tons of expensive meat and blubber are on their way to posh sushi restaurants.

South Korea will join the small but distasteful club of nations who ignore world opinion and the global moratorium on the bloody slaughter which reached its peak in 1962 with 66,000 kills. The biggest remaining whaling fleets are from Norway, Iceland and Japan.

Seoul announced its plans at the 64th annual International Whaling Commission (IWC) held in Panama.

The commission is increasingly being accused of being toothless by more militant campaigners for sea mammals.

The 89-member IWC is only concerned with larger species of whale. And future commission meetings will only be held every two years.

In Panama Japan scuppered widely supported international plans for a whale sanctuary in the south Atlantic and an attempt to get the United Nations to debate the hunting of all cetaceans (whales, dolphins, porpoises and so on).

Japan pays the IWC subscriptions for small whaling states – which include the IWC’s new chairwoman Jeannine Compton-Antoine’s St Lucia – to get the 25 per cent vote it needs for these vetoes.

…

Today catching whales “accidentally” in fishing nets is already common in South Korea. Whale meat is easily found in markets and restaurants.

South Korea was one of the first countries to use the scientific whaling excuse after the 1986 IWC global whaling moratorium.

International pressure and protest stopped them then. It can again.

South Korea drops scientific whaling plan: here.

Seoul’s proposed intelligence-sharing agreement with Tokyo provoked a political crisis for the South Korean government: here.

South Korea: Dictator’s daughter announces presidential bid: here.

The chairman of one of South Korea’s largest industrial conglomerates was sentenced to four years in prison and fined 5.1 billion won (£2.9m) for embezzlement today: here.

Atlantic right whales are in danger—help us protect them today! Here.

CanadaL Whale watchers off Newfoundland call them Mutt and Jeff, and for two seasons now, this rare pair of humpback whales of remarkably similar size, behaviour and friendliness has left locals and tourists awestruck: here.

A sperm whale that was rescued and returned to sea after being stranded for four days in shallow waters off the coast of West Java in Indonesia has died, a rescuer said Monday: here.

August 2012. One of the largest recorded sightings of Blue whales off the coast of San Diego has been spotted by veteran aerial photographer and marine biologist Eddie Kisfaludy: here.

Korean pseudo-scientific whaling

This video is called Antarctica – Minke Whale.

From Wildlife Extra:

South Korea launches alleged ‘Scientific whaling’ to add to their ‘bycatch’ – ARSE

South Korea plans to copy the Japanese ‘Scientific whaling programme’

NZ opposes South Korean whaling proposal

July 2012. South Korea have announced plans to launch ‘scientific whaling’ of Minke whales, similar to that run by Japan, but potentially even more damaging to whales as they will target Minke near the shores of Korea, a small and vulnerable population.

Already catching 200 whales per year as ‘bycatch‘

Korea already catches an estimated 200 Minke whales per year by ‘accident’ (They must be incredibly careless). If the Korean scientific community are so keen to get hold of some whales for science, they already have plenty to choose from.

‘Accidental bycatch’

In 2007 Wildlife Extra reported on the improbable number of whales caught by the Korean fishing industry as ‘accidental bycatch’, some 200 per year. Though it is illegal to directly hunt Minke whales in South Korea, those caught in fishing nets can be killed and sold as ‘bycatch’ if officially reported. Economic incentives make such pursuits attractive, as individual whales were thought to fetch as much as $100,000.

The 2007 study, involving numerous researchers, was led by Scott Baker of Oregon State University. Researchers estimated that the true number of Minke whales that probably passed through Korean markets from 1999 to 2003 was around 827 individuals, or nearly twice the number in official reports.

‘If the mortality is really twice as great as the number reported to the government and to the International Whaling Commission, it has major implications for the survival of the species,’ Baker said. ‘Researchers who have done sighting surveys of Minke whales report difficulty in even locating the whales and it has been hard to reconcile the small numbers sighted at sea with the numbers reported via bycatch.

New Zealand speaks out

New Zealand’s Foreign Minister, Murray McCully, has condemned the Korean announcement of an intention to commence a so-called scientific whaling programme in the North West Pacific as “a serious setback for those who are committed to conservation of the species”.

Mr McCully says he hopes Korea will carefully consider the concerns of countries like New Zealand before making any final decisions.

Accidental bycatch

“Whales in these waters are already heavily targeted by Japan, and large numbers are also caught as by-catch by Korea. Any action by Korea to commence whaling in these waters following this announcement will have serious consequences,” Mr McCully says.

‘Scientific’ arse

“This initiative will also place further pressure on the IWC, already an organisation with difficulty sustaining itself as a credible international institution. The portrayal of this initiative as a ‘scientific’ programme will have no more credibility than the so-called scientific programme conducted by Japan, which has long been recognised as commercial whaling in drag.

“In this day and age there is simply no need to kill whales in order to conduct effective research. New Zealand has raised its voice against this proposal at the IWC meeting and I have instructed that our Ambassador in Seoul take immediate steps to register our serious concerns with the Korean government. It is to be hoped that Korea will now give serious consideration to the widespread and strong objections being raised,” Mr McCully says.

See also here.

UPDATE 6 December 2012:

South Korea drops plans to resume whaling

Proposals to conduct ‘scientific’ whale hunts similar to those carried out by Japan provoked storm of international criticism

Related articles

• S. Korea abandons scientific whaling (worldfishing.net)
• South Korea Abandons ‘Scientific’ Whaling Plan (victoriesfortheanimals.wordpress.com)
• South Korea Ditches Whaling Plans (newser.com)
• S. Korea formally dumps ‘scientific’ whaling plan (terradaily.com)
• NZ legally challenges Japanese whaling (nzherald.co.nz)
• A day to celebrate – South Korea abandons ‘scientific’ whaling plan (greenpeace.org)
• South Korea Abandons ‘Scientific’ Whaling Plan (legalaction4animalrights.net)
• South Korea drops plans to resume whaling (oddonion.com)

Icelandic fin whale hunt stops

This video about whales is called Whale activists: ‘Meet us don’t eat us’.

From Wildlife Extra:

Iceland abandons Fin whale hunt – For now

IFAW welcomes end to Fin whaling in Iceland

May 2012. The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) has welcomed the news that Iceland has called an end to the cruel practice of harpooning endangered Fin whales.

Kristjan Loftsson, the lone Icelandic whaler responsible for killing 280 Fin whales (seven Fin whales were killed in Iceland’s waters in 2006, 125 in 2009 and 148 in 2010) in Icelandic waters over the past six years, cited difficulties in trading the meat with Japan following its tsunami tragedy as a reason for cancelling last year’s hunt. He has now abandoned plans to train his harpoons on the whales in 2012, according to Icelandic media reports.

Whale watching possibilities

IFAW, which has worked alongside Icelandic whale watch operators for several years to promote whale watching as a humane and profitable alternative to the cruelty of whaling, welcomed the decision.

Robbie Marsland, UK Director of IFAW, said: “We are delighted to hear that no more Fin whales will be cruelly and needlessly slaughtered in Iceland. We are also pleased to hear Mr Loftsson acknowledge that this outdated industry is uneconomic. This is exactly what IFAW-commissioned research has shown over recent years; it is just a shame that 280 Fin whales had to die in this failed commercial experiment.”

Icelandic media reports that Loftsson failed to reach collective agreement with the Association of Icelandic Fishermen on salaries and conditions for deckhands and that he believes the market for whale meat in Japan has still not recovered since the 2011 tsunami. Loftsson regularly exports relatively small amounts of Fin whale meat to his own company in Japan, but has yet to find a demand for the meat on the Japanese market.

Minke whale hunt continues

Sadly, however, commercial hunting of Minke whales in Iceland continues. IFAW urges Iceland to end all whaling and instead work to promote responsible whale watching.

In total, 58 Minke whales were killed in Iceland last season, by two companies. This was from a self-allocated catch limit of 216. The first Minke whales of the 2012 whaling season were harpooned in recent weeks.

In 2011 IFAW launched its ‘Meet Us Don’t Eat Us‘ campaign in Iceland, encouraging tourists visiting the country to support responsible whale watching but to avoid sampling whale meat. The campaign will continue this summer.

Related articles

• Whales’ synchronised swimming when endangered (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Japanese whaling fleet leaves port (abc.net.au)
• Good Irish whale news (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• California shipping lanes shifted for whales (abclocal.go.com)
• Illegal whale meat trade in Denmark (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Japan split on whale hunts, poll shows (guardian.co.uk)
• 30-foot beached whale found in NY (newsfixnow.com)

Japanese government spends disaster money on whaling

This video is about saving the life of a humpback whale.

From daily The Morning Star in England today:

Tsunami money funds whale hunt

Japan: Tokyo is spending 2.3 billion yen (£19 million) from its tsunami reconstruction budget to fund the country’s annual whaling hunt in the Antarctic Ocean, a government official revealed today.

Greenpeace blasted the funding decision, saying that it was depriving disaster victims of desperately needed support.

Japan’s annual whaling expedition left Shimonoseki in southern Japan on Tuesday. It aims to catch 900 whales.

This video is about humpback whales mating.

From British daily The Independent:

Japan abandons humpback whale hunt after international outcry

By Carl Freire in Tokyo

Published: 22 December 2007

Japan has suspended its first humpback whale hunt in seas off Antarctica since the 1960s, its government said yesterday, backing down in an escalating international battle over the expansion of its hunt.

Japan dropped the planned taking of 50 humpbacks at the behest of the United States, which chairs the International Whaling Commission (IWC), said Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura. He said the suspension would last a year or two but that there would be “no changes” to Japan’s stance on research whaling itself.

Japan dispatched its whaling fleet last month to the southern Pacific in the first major hunt of humpback whales since the 1960s, generating widespread criticism. Officials said yesterday they had not harpooned any humpbacks.

The move defuses for now a high-profile row with Australia, though Japanese officials deny they were influenced by Canberra’s anti-whaling position. Australia announced on Wednesday that it would dispatch surveillance planes and a ship to gather evidence for a possible legal challenge to the hunt.

It was unlikely, however, to quell the increasingly bold high-seas protests against Japan’s scientific whaling research programme, in which it kills 1,000 whales, mostly minkes, a year in the Pacific.

See also here.

Reaction from Greenpeace: here; from IFAW: here.

Australian scientists studying humpback whales sounds say they have begun to decode the whale’s mysterious communication system, identifying male pick-up lines and motherly warnings: here.

Rudd misleads Australia over whale watching program: here.

January 2012: New research is shedding light on the sale of skin blubber and meat from whale bycatch. In South Korea, commercial and subsistence whaling have been illegal since 1986, but domestic sales of protected common minke products are allowed if the whales are caught accidently: here.

TEPCO nuclear disaster affects whales

This video says about itself:

One Less Reason For Killing Minke Whales

An analysis of the whales DNA, by a team headed by Stanford researchers, demonstrates that the current population of Antarctic minke whales is within the historical norm of the species over the last 100,000 years. There is no evidence of a significant increase in the population of minke whales, the researchers said.

From the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society:

2011-06-15

Radiation Detected In Minke Whales Off Japan

Japan’s spring coastal whaling off Kushiro has ended, and radioactive caesium has been detected in some of the whales taken. Officials from Japan have announced that this is likely a result of the nuclear accident off Fukushima, and that the situation will need to be watched.

According to the survey team, 6 minke whales were tested for radioactivity out of the 17 caught in the coastal spring hunt. In two whales trace levels of radioactive caesium were found: 31 becquerels/kg in one and 24.3 becquerels/kg in another. The spring hunt usually takes place off Ayukawa, and the fall hunt from Kushiro, but the whalers in East Ayukawa district were affected by the earthquake, and the hunt was changed to Kushiro.

Mark Simmonds, WDCS International Director of Science, said, “Sadly this shows that radioactive caesium is within the whole marine food chain and even reaching the whales.” The implications for the health of whales or for human consumers are unclear and levels detected in whales are below the provisional guideline for human health of 500 becquerels/kg set by Japan.

Since the March 11th quake, samples of a growing number of species have been found to exceed safety levels recommended by Japan, including Japanese sandlance, whitebait, ayu sweetfish, Japanese smelt, Land-locked salmon, Mediterranean mussel, Wakame seaweed, Hijiki seaweed, Arame seaweed, Japanese dace, Surf clam, Sea urchin, brown hakeling and fat greenling. Japanese sand lance is a key prey species for minke whales.

The termination of the coastal hunt after taking just 17 whales as compared to 45 in 2010 raises many questions about the future of Japanese whaling and its likely strategy at the forthcoming IWC meeting (where it has previously argued strongly for a legalization of its coastal whaling).

With the future of its Antarctic whaling in question, its Ayukawa-based coastal hunt prevented by tsunami damage and the expanded Hokkaido-based coastal hunt now threatened by radioactivity, Japan’s only viable option for whaling at this point may be the offshore hunt in the North Pacific that just launched, in which it plans to kill 100 minke whales 10 sperm whales, 50 Bryde’s whales and 100 sei whales. Officials have announced that meat from those whales will also be monitored for radiation.

Fukushima: It’s much worse than you think. Scientific experts believe Japan’s nuclear disaster to be far worse than governments are revealing to the public: here.

Antarctic Again to Be Whaling Battleground: here.

The Minke Whale Migration through the Great Barrier Reef: here.

Will Norwegian whaling stop?

This video is about humpback whales in the Indian Ocean.

From the Daily Exchange:

Posted April 6, 2011

Norwegians have lost their appetite for whale meat

New economic study reveals why Norwegian whaling belongs in the past

Toronto – in the first week of the Norwegian whaling season, three animal welfare groups, the World Society for the Protection of Animals, NOAH-for dyrs rettigheter and Dyrebeskyttelsen Norge, released a new economic study on Norwegian whaling, revealing the Norwegian public’s appetite for whale meat is at an all time low and the whaling industry is unlikely to survive without substantial financial support at taxpayers’ expense.

Siri Martinsen, Veterinarian in NOAH-for dyrs rettigheter, said: “The Government states that whaling is a non-subsidised activity. Nevertheless, whaling related activites such as promotion, marketing and research are receiving significant government funds. It is absurd that taxpayers’ financial support for whaling is almost as high as the landing value of the meat. These forced attempts to increase the viability of whaling need to end.”

The report highlights the unpopularity of whale meat in Norway, revealing that fewer than five percent of Norwegians eat it regularly. Notably, young people are particularly uninterested in trying whale meat. The low demand is reflected by the whaling industry which counts less than 20 vessels taking part in the annual hunt and estimates that less than one percent of fishermen are whaling – representing a maximum of 50 jobs for this season.

Tanya Schumacher, Marine Mammal Advisor in Dyrebeskyttelsen Norge, said: “It is clear the public has little appetite for the products. It is also a principle of Norwegian animal welfare law, that animals should not suffer unnecessarily. Unfortunately, according to the available government figures, 20% of whales in Norwegian whale hunts do not die immediately and do suffer. Keeping this industry alive defies logic.”

Despite the Norwegian public clearly being concerned about the animal welfare impacts of whaling, the Norwegian Government has replaced whaling inspectors with a less costly automated data collection system, leading to insufficient oversight of killing methods. The three groups are calling for the Government to reintroduce the full inspection system on board all whaling vessels.

Joanna Toole, Oceans Campaigns Coordinator at WSPA, said: “Norwegian whaling is not only inherently cruel, it is neither wanted nor needed. With this economic argument bolstering our argument against whaling on welfare grounds, it is about time that the Norwegian Government takes notice of these clear facts and reconsiders their whaling policy.”

NOAH-for dyrs rettigheter and Dyrebeskyttelsen Norge will hand over the report to the leader of the Trade and Industry Committee in the Norwegian parliament urging him to make whaling a thing of the past.

See also here.

Hundreds of whales face slaughter as Norway’s killing season resumes: here.

Iceland and Japan launch spring whale hunts: here.

Whale Wars in Iceland. Hunters and watchers battle over the fate of whales: here.

May 2011. WDCS (the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society) has learned that Iceland’s fin whale hunt is to be postponed indefinitely and a number of workers at the Hvalur whaling company will lose their jobs in a move which reflects the slow demise of the industry in Iceland: here.

Whale researchers say landing as bycatch in fishnets is one of the leading causes of death for marine mammals: here.

Female humpback whales snapped hunting for fish in spectacular pics: here.

Researchers find popular humpback whale songs spread around the world like hit songs: here.

Humpback Whales May Be Migratory Astronomers: here.

ScienceDaily (Mar. 16, 2012) — As Arctic sea ice melts, Alaska’s whales, walruses, and polar bears may face a new obstacle as they navigate local waters: traffic. According to an assemblage of Alaska Native groups and WCS, the rapid increase in shipping in these formerly frozen waterways poses a heightened risk to the region’s marine mammals and the local communities that rely on them for food security and cultural identity: here.

Antarctic whale expedition

This video about humpbacks is called Whale Hunting Krill in Antarctica – Planet Earth – BBC wildlife.

From the Australian Antarctic Division:

Whale expedition heads south

Wednesday, 03 February 2010

The largest collaborative whale research voyage ever undertaken is on its way to Antarctica.

Seventeen scientists and support personnel sailed out of Wellington today towards the Ross Sea and adjacent Southern Ocean area.

For the next six weeks, led by the Australian Antarctic Division‘s Dr Nick Gales, the Australian, New Zealand and French research team will study humpback whales, Antarctic minke whales, and blue whales in the quest to better understand them.

Dr Gales, who heads the Australian Marine Mammal Centre, says that information gained from this trip will give greater insight into the little-known facts about how whales interact with sea ice and how they use their environment, providing critical information to assist in the future conservation of whales.

More than one hundred satellite tags will be deployed onto the whales to enable researchers to keep track of their movements over the coming months as they head north to their breeding grounds.

At the same time, other non-lethal methods such as biopsies, acoustics and hydrographic surveys will be employed.

The findings from this expedition, together with aerial surveys carried out this season close to the Antarctic continent will be presented in a report to the next International Whaling Commission meeting in June.

In the meantime, it has been a busy time for the scientists – each, specialists in their field – preparing for the trip south. For the tight-knit group of whale specialists the voyage is the culmination of two years’ planning.

The voyage, aboard New Zealand’s RV Tangaroa, will return in mid-March.

Researchers have set sail from New Zealand to study whales off Antarctica without killing them, an open challenge to Japan‘s killing of up to 1,000 whales a year in the name of science: here.

The federal government isn’t ruling out support for an Australian Greens bill which would see anyone convicted of helping a whaling operation go to jail: here.

Scientists on Shetland believe they may have discovered a previously-unobserved technique being used by killer whales to catch herring: here.

Huge Fin whale strands in Cornwall: here.

Is Antarctica Home of the Next Miracle Drug? Here.

Huge Iceberg Breaks Off Antarctica: here.

Iceland whale meat exports defy EU law: here.

April 2010. A new proposal announced by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) would, if adopted, for the first time in 25 years, endorse the killing of whales in their most precious feeding grounds, the Southern Ocean: here.

UK Paper’s Investigation Alleges Japan Offered Bribes, Hookers to Small Nations in Exchange for Blocking Whaling Ban: here.

World’s largest Humpback population threatened by Western Australia plan to create massive industrial zone in the Kimberley: here.

The calving of the Mertz Glacier tongue in February 2010 exposed a large section of the sea floor, about 80 km long and over 30 km wide, enabling access to an area where no information currently exists. Using an underwater camera, a team of scientists and technicians from Geoscience Australia and the Australian Antarctic Division collected the first images of the sea floor and the marine animals that live there: here.

Related articles

• Antarctic blue whale new research (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Japanese whaling conflict with Australia (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Humpback whales, new research (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Japanese whaling ships returning to hunting grounds: Paul Watson (japandailypress.com)
• Tracker reveals whaling vessel turn-around (abc.net.au)
• Each annual Antarctic whaling season costs Japanese taxpayers 10 million dollars, says IFAW (en.mercopress.com)
• Japan will never stop whaling: fisheries chief (japantimes.co.jp)

US religious right supports Japanese whale killers

This is a video about humpback whales; one of several species almost exterminated by past whaling, and now in danger from Japanese whale killing ships.

The religious right in the USA has links to foreign fellow ultra rightist loony Christians; like Ugandan extremists who want to kill gay people; and Nigerian mad evangelists killing little children as “witches”.

Now, it turns out that the international solidarity of the United States religious right extends not just to fellow extreme Christians, but to non-Christian killers as well.

On 15 January, the loony Rightist “Christian Newswire” in the USA has come out in support of Japanese whale killers; denouncing opponents of those killers as “terrorists”.

Because those whalers are Christian? Hardly. Christians of any sort are a very small minority in Japan; so, probably in the taxpayer subsidized whale killing industry as well.

Probably, most Japanese whalers are Shinto (traditionally, the state religion in Japan, considering emperors divine etc.). The United States religious right has a tradition of attacking non-Christian religions like Shintoism as horrible “Satanic” paganism.

Why are they not doing so in this case, but, on the contrary, proclaiming international solidarity?

The “Christian Newswire” does so, not because of any recently discovered religious tolerance, but out of spite against Charles Darwin, dead for almost 150 years. As becomes apparent in their screed: “The Whaling Controversy Resolved: ‘Mysterious Islands’ DVD Shows Sea Shepherd Pirates to Be Darwinian Extremists”.

They say (no, I am not linking to them):

The Galápagos Islands were not only a once-great international whaling hub, but –thanks to Charles Darwin — this archipelago holds the distinction of being the birthplace of the modern animal rights movement.

Messrs the ultra religious wingnuts forget to mention why the Galápagos Islands are no longer a “great” whaling hub. Because nineteenth century whalers not just exterminated at least one tortoise species there, but also killed so many whales that whaling around the Galapagos became commercially unviable. No “fault” of Charles Darwin, Greenpeace, or Sea Shepherd.

World Vision hires only Christians under its $250 million in government foreign aid grants. Obama promised to change that. So why hasn’t he? Here.

Humpback and Fin whales off Wexford and Waterford, Ireland: here.

California Sushi Bar Caught Selling [Sei] Whale Meat: here.

Proposals to resume commercial whaling have been dealt a blow by DNA detective work showing that restaurants in the US and South Korea illegally sold whale meat from Japan: here.

Japanese PM hates whale meat

This video is called Promo ‘Kingdom Of The Blue Whale’, National Geographic Channel.

This is another National Geographic video about blue whales.

From AFP news agency:

Japanese PM says he hates whale meat

October 31, 2009 – 8:09PM

AFP

Japan’s Yukio Hatoyama has revealed he dislikes whale meat, a newspaper has reported in an unusual confession for the prime minister of a country that defies Western criticism of whaling.

“I hate whale meat,” Hatoyama said during a meeting with his visiting Dutch counterpart Jan Peter Balkenende on Monday, the Sankei Shimbun reported on Saturday.

Most Japanese (and most people in other countries where there still is whaling, like Iceland and Norway) don’t eat whale meat. Continuing whaling just serves the special interests of small minorities, at the detriment of the global ecosystem. Time to stop it forever.

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: here.

In the lead-up to US President Barack Obama’s first visit to Japan, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has signalled that his government is wanting to readjust the country’s longstanding alliance with the US: here.

US President Barack Obama arrives today in Tokyo at the start of his first trip to Asia. While he will also stop off in South Korea and the APEC summit in Singapore, the central focus of the tour is China and the underlying economic and strategic rivalry between Beijing and Washington: here. And here.

Visiting US President Barack Obama faced a mass protest in central Tokyo on Friday as activists demanded the withdrawal of the 47,000 US troops still based in Japan: here.

Some people just don’t know when to shut up. Japanese whalers ridiculous PR: here.

Stop whaling, Bishop Tutu says

This is a National Geographic video about blue whales.

From Reuters:

Ban all whale hunting, says Tutu

28/11/2008 08:02 – (SA)

Wendell Roelf

Cape Town – Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu launched a new global anti-whaling campaign on Thursday, which seeks to ban all whaling.

“What makes it even worse is the brutality (of whale hunting),” said Tutu, a Nobel peace laureate, at the launch.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), which backs the campaign, says whales are usually hunted with grenade-tipped harpoons that explode inside the animal.

The world imposed a moratorium on all whale hunts in 1986 after many species were driven towards extinction by decades of exploitation for meat, oil and whalebone.

Japan, Norway and Iceland still hunt minke whales, arguing they are plentiful.

The campaign has other high profile supporters including British actor Pierce Brosnan.

From New Scientist:

Chief medical officers of the Faroe Islands have recommended that pilot whales no longer be considered fit for human consumption, because they are toxic – as revealed by research on the Faroes themselves.

The remote Atlantic islands, situated between Scotland and Iceland, have been one of the last strongholds of traditional whaling, with thousands of small pilot whales killed every year, and eaten by most Faroese.

Anti-whaling groups have long protested, but the Faroese argued that whaling is part of their culture – an argument adopted by large-scale whalers in Japan and Norway.

But today in a statement to the islanders, chief medical officers Pál Weihe and Høgni Debes Joensen announced that pilot whale meat and blubber contains too much mercury, PCBs and DDT derivatives to be safe for human consumption.

Endangered Hector’s dolphins being mutilated in New Zealand: here.

Greenpeace protest against whaling and Human Rights breaches: here.

Ocean noise poses grave threat to marine mammals: here.

Navy sonar at whale birthing area worries some: here.

Blue and Sperm whale sightings off southern Sri Lanka: here.

NOAA researchers: Blue whales re-establishing former migration patterns: here.

Brazil declares whole coastline as a whale and dolphin sanctuary: here.

Possible new population of North Atlantic Right whales discovered off Greenland: here. And here.

Blue Whale Discovered Singing In New York Coastal Waters: here.

Southern right whales: here.

Japanese dolphin slaughter video: here.