Japan’s plan to hunt humpback whales likely to spark outrage

This video is called Humpback Whales – BBC documentary excerpt.

Associated Press reports:

Japan’s plan to hunt humpback whales likely to spark outrage, opponents warn

By Ray Lilley

March 1, 2007

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – Anti-whaling nations New Zealand and Australia vowed Thursday to continue the fight to end Japan’s annual whale hunts, warning that its plans to kill humpback whales off Antarctica in December could spark outrage.

The warning comes just a day after Japan ended its latest southern whale program following a deadly fire that crippled the mother ship of its whaling fleet and left it drifting near the Antarctic coast. A crewman died in the fire.

While New Zealand warned the incident could have sparked an “ecological disaster,” Japanese officials had said it posed no threat to the environment and will not lead Japan to call off future kills.

“The (whaling) program will resume in December in the Antarctic,” a spokesman for Japan’s Institute for Cetacean Research, Glenn Inwood, said Thursday.

It would hunt minke, fin and humpback whales.

Humpback migration: here.

Norwegian whaling: here.

BBC guide to whales: here.

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