This video is called Greenpeace chases Japanese whaling fleet – 13 Jan 08.
Translated rom Belgian daily De Standaard:
Burning whaling ship threatens nature of the Antarctic
WELLINGTON – A Japanese whaling ship, which is on fire in the Ross sea near Antarctica, threatens the vulnerable Antarctic environment.
It is drifting around near penguin breeding grounds.
New Zealand, which is helping to take care of the ship, said this on Wednesday.
The ship, the Nisshin Maru, has 500,000 liter of heavy oil and 800,000 liter of fuel oil aboard and is starting to capsize because of the weight of the firefighters’ water, Minister of the Environment Chris Carter said.
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Dear Kitty. Some blog 
16 February 2007
Japan: Crippled ship no threat to area
RAY LILLEY
Associated Press
WELLINGTON, New Zealand – A whaling ship disabled by fire in Antarctic waters near the world’s biggest penguin breeding ground poses no environmental threat, Japanese officials said Friday, despite calls for swift action to avert catastrophe.
New Zealand officials and environmentalists expressed concern that the 8,000-ton Nisshin Maru – left without engine power after a fire broke out aboard – could threaten the penguin rookery at Cape Adare, about 100 miles away.
It is unclear if the fire has been extinguished; officials said Friday that the area where the fire broke out was filled with smoke and couldn’t be examined.
The ship is carrying tens of thousands of gallons of oil, which environmentalists fear will spill and be carried by currents to Cape Adare. But no oil had spilled and the vessel was in no immediate danger of sinking, officials said.
One crewman is missing and presumed dead.
Japanese government-affiliated Institute of Cetacean Research Director General Hiroshi Hatanaka said the ship poses no danger to the environment.
“Fears that this might turn into some environmental disaster are premature. The vessel is not drifting, its not listing and its not leaking,” he said. “The area in which the fire broke out is not located near the fuel holds.”
Japanese officials said they may have to abandon this season’s whale hunt in the ice-strewn waters of the Southern Ocean because of the fire. While there are other whaling ships nearby, the Nisshin Maru is the only ship in the fleet able to process whale carcasses.
Conservation Minister Chris Carter of New Zealand, an anti-whaling nation that also has responsibility for maritime rescues in the area, urged the Japanese government to use either the Greenpeace ship Esperanza – a converted Russian tug – or a U.S. icebreaker in the area to move the vessel.
“It is imperative the Nisshin Maru is towed further away from the pristine Antarctic coast, the neighboring penguin colony and the perilous ice floes,” Carter said. “It’s likely we have two days of good weather to move the Nisshin Maru out of Antarctic waters in the safest and most practical way.”
Greenpeace said it was willing and able to help, and the Esperanza – in the region to try to stop the whale hunt – could reach the stricken ship in about 24 hours. “We have the capacity and we’re on the spot,” Greenpeace spokeswoman Cindy Baxter said.
Glenn Inwood, spokesman for the Institute of Cetacean Research, said no help was needed. “The whole Greenpeace offer is a red herring. Their assistance is not required and will not be accepted,” he told The Associated Press.
Whaling ship the Oriental Bluebird was alongside the Nisshin Maru and “fully able” to tow it out of the area if required, Inwood said.
“The main priority is to locate the missing sailor, clear the smoke then decide whether to move the Nisshin Maru or repair it on the spot – if that’s possible,” he said.
Crew went below decks on Friday and set up fans to try to cool the burned-out part of the ship and blow out dense smoke that has filled the vessel since the blaze broke out early Thursday.
The whaling fleet had planned to hunt up to 945 whales from mid-December to mid-March. It was not immediately known how many whales have been killed so far.
“Whether we can complete the hunt would depend on the extent of damage to the ship,” said Hajime Ishikawa, another official at the institute. “But it would be difficult to continue if the ship has to be brought into port.”
Japan says its annual whale hunts, begun after the International Whaling Commission imposed a global ban on commercial whaling in 1986, are for research. Environmental groups say the hunts are a pretext to keep Japan’s tiny whaling industry alive.
__
Hiroko Tabuchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.
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Posted on Fri, Feb. 16, 2007
Young Japanese lose interest in whaling
ERIC TALMADGE
Associated Press
OFF OKINAWA, Japan – Hiroshi Kobayashi has been hunting whales for three years now. He knows just where to look, and boasts that, in season, he has a close-to-perfect record of finding them. But he’s never killed one – he captains a whale-watching boat for tourists. And he thinks whaling is, or should be, a thing of the past.
“They used to whale here in Okinawa,” he said after taking out a group to see humpback whales migrating through the waters near this southern Japanese island. “It wasn’t a problem because there were more whales then. But I really can’t support killing them now.”
Despite worldwide opposition, the Japanese government is battling to keep the nation’s whaling fleet afloat. Now, it also faces a threat at home – a lack of interest among young people who grew up during an international whaling ban, have never eaten whale and see the mammals more as impressive living creatures than as a potential meal.
“It just doesn’t seem right,” said Kobayashi, who is in his 30s.
The government is unmoved by such sentiment. This week, Tokyo hosted a conference of pro-whaling nations aimed at galvanizing support for the lifting of an international ban on commercial whaling that has been in place since the 1980s.
Pro-whaling nations argue that the International Whaling Commission has abandoned its original purpose of managing commercial whaling and has in effect turned into a whale protection lobby. About half of the commission members – including the U.S. and Britain – boycotted the meeting.
A summary issued after the meeting, which ended Thursday, called the IWC “dysfunctional” and said the “criminalization of whaling should be removed.”
Joji Morishita, Japan’s representative at the conference, said the country will push for reforms at the next commission meeting, to be held in Alaska. But he warned that Japan won’t wait forever.
“Unless we change the IWC’s way of doing things, this international organization will be lost,” he said, adding that Japan may pull out altogether.
In the meantime, the international commercial whaling ban hasn’t stopped Japan from killing whales. Japanese whalers caught about 1,070 minke whales in 2006, as well as 170 Bryde’s, sei, sperm and fin whales under the auspices of a research program that began after the IWC ban in 1986.
This year’s hunt in the Antarctic may be called off early – a Japanese whaling ship was crippled by fire this week off the world’s largest penguin breeding grounds. One crew member was missing, and although the fire was contained below decks it continued to burn, New Zealand Conservation Minister Chris Carter said.
Japan’s fisheries agency said the blaze could force an early end to this season’s hunt.
The research whaling program is allowed by the IWC, which uses its data and approves its kill quotas. Japanese officials claim the kills are needed to gauge whale populations and to study their breeding and feeding habits. Marine biologists analyze bones from the dead whales and study their stomach contents.
Many environmental groups say the hunts are a pretext to keep Japan’s tiny whaling industry alive. Meat from the catch is sold commercially. Canned or frozen whale can be found in most large Japanese supermarkets, and expensive restaurants specializing in whale meat are not uncommon.
But whale is no longer an important part of the Japanese diet.
Unlike older Japanese, who remember whale as a regular item on school lunch menus, many Japanese under age 40 have never tried the meat and, with other sources of protein such as beef more widely available, have little incentive to do so.
The Cetacean Research Institute, which is in charge of the research whaling fleet, hopes to change that.
“As part of our promotion campaign inside Japan, we are trying to have whales eaten for school lunches,” said institute spokesman Gabriel Gomez. “It’s important to actually try the food and to learn that it’s actually good.”
He said whale goes well with Japanese food.
“Since Japanese people eat rice, I think it’s good for them to eat whales along with their vegetables,” he said.
Winning back Japan’s hearts and stomachs might be an uphill battle, however.
“My parents’ generation may feel differently, but I feel sorry for the whales,” said Mayuka Hamai, a college student who took Kobayashi’s whale-watching tour. “I’ve never eaten whale. I’d rather look at one.”
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