Japan to catch up to 60 whales for research in Northwestern Pacific

Saturday 12th April, 05:57 AM JST

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10 Comments

rjd_jr at 07:44 AM JST - 12th April

Let's stir up another round of outrage, atrocity, and hatred for our Japanese whalers, decimating the entire world's whale population!
OssanII at 07:49 AM JST - 12th April

OK, before anybody starts posting please note that MINKE WHALES ARE NOT ENDANGERED. IWC estimates 500,000 of them. They are not in the same category as Blue Whales or Humpbacks. You can look this up yourself. It's true.
some14some at 08:17 AM JST - 12th April

just 60 whales from 14.4.2008 to 31.5.2008? "one whale a day keeps criticism away" !
Pukey2 at 09:27 AM JST - 12th April

Very clever of them to announce this now when all the world is focused on China and Tibet. Very clever.
cleo at 11:11 AM JST - 12th April

Hundreds of thousands of minke out there, and any kind of credible 'research' can be done with just 60? If they're taking them for research, it's not enough to be meaningful, the results will have no value and so they shouldn't be taking them. If they're taking them (as seems likely) to make up some small part of the shortfall from the successfully-stymied Southern Whale Sanctuary hunt, it's commercial hunting and there's a moratorium out on that.
Scrote at 12:04 PM JST - 12th April

Maybe this is the start of a shift of whaling operations from the south Pacific to areas nearer Japan?

But don't whales in the northern Pacific have a high heavy metal content?
okapake at 12:07 PM JST - 12th April

They doing "research" to find out if these minke whales from different parts of the world's oceans to have a taste test!

And by the way, in the past there were probably millions "of minke wahales out there."
Desiderata1967 at 02:09 PM JST - 12th April

Why does Japan continue this charade?
imacat at 10:09 PM JST - 12th April

Why does Japan need 2 research programs? One in the NW Pacific and one in the Antarctic? As the main reason for these escapades is to preserve Japan's local traditional food culture they would do better to take the whales locally. The JARPNII "research" (hard to keep a straight face as I typed the word research!) in the NW Pacific can provide enough whales for Japan's oh-so-precious food culture. It seems very arrogant and greedy of Japan to swagger halfway around the globe to grab whales in the beautiful and delicate Antarctic wilderness when they have an abundance of whales on their doorstep. And Japan can forget about trying to explain their whaling along the lines of "upholding the principle of sustainable use". No one travels 1000s and 1000s of kms to the furthest reaches of the globe to "uphold a principle". That's complete rubbish. They can also spare us the ludicrous arguments of "balancing the eco-system because minke whales are eating all the fish". These silly reasons just make Japan look ridiculous.
Hughgarse at 11:01 AM JST - 14th April

to detect any change in the minke whale population

Yes, the change is that they`re killing them all.

Why does Japan keep up this charade of killing whales for meat under the guise of research?? As Kevin Rudd said, noone is fooled by this!