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posted by n1 on Saturday July 22 2017, @02:41AM   Printer-friendly
from the not-the-london-whale dept.

A recent law promoting whaling allows Japan to take a key step towards resuming commercial hunting of the giant mammals that are "a great source of food," officials said on Thursday.

Japan defies international protests to carry out what it calls scientific research whaling, having repeatedly said its ultimate goal is to whale commercially again. In the 2016-2017 season, its fleet took 333 minke whales in the Antarctic.

The new law, passed in June, will help enshrine as a "national responsibility" an activity that was previously just a tacit policy, said Shigeki Takaya, director of the Whaling Affairs Office at Japan's Fisheries Agency.

"While the government has given its support to the implementation of scientific research into whales, it is heartening to see that the law clarifies its position even further," Takaya told a news conference.

In 2014, the International Court of Justice ruled that Japan should halt Antarctic whaling.

Per the Huff, Japan's government thumbs its nose at international law at the behest of their commercial fishing industries, and gives permission to "deal with" protesters.

In a 2012 poll conducted for the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), 88.8% of the Japanese public said they had not bought any whale meat in the past 12 months. While 26.6% said they supported Japan's scientific whaling, 18.5% opposed the hunts and the rest of the population were undecided, hardly a ringing endorsement of Japan's bloody whaling policy.

Much of the whale meat brought in from the scientific whaling scheme is being held in warehouses, frozen because it does not sell well on the Japan market. Sales of dolphin meat have also plummeted. Because sales of whale meat are so poor, the Japan government has subsidized the scientific whaling scheme at 5 billion yen ($44.7 million US) annually.

Furthermore, the new legislation allows Japan to send vessels to Antarctica with the fleet specifically to deal with harassment from such organizations as the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which seeks to interfere with whaling activities they contend violate international law. [...] The legislation also gives new authority to Japan immigration enforcement to deal with people who may be "likely" to sabotage or harass whaling vessels in Japan. This is an obvious effort to legalize the blocking of people, such as members of Sea Shepherd, who come to Japan to legally and peacefully protest the dolphin hunts in Taiji.


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  • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Saturday July 22 2017, @04:19AM (3 children)

    by hemocyanin (186) on Saturday July 22 2017, @04:19AM (#542729) Journal

    Clearly, the excessive levels of mercury in marine mammal meat has impaired the rationality of those pushing the hunt.

    The researchers found that mercury levels in all 137 meat samples exceeded the guidelines of 0.4 part per million set by the Japanese government. In fact, samples of false killer whale and striped dolphin surpassed the regulations by 200 and 160 times, respectively.

    https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/packaged-whale-meat-in-ja/ [scientificamerican.com]

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday July 22 2017, @05:01AM (2 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Saturday July 22 2017, @05:01AM (#542745) Journal

    After the spiciness of Fukushima, mercury has a soothing, cooling effect.
    See also Minamata disease [wikipedia.org]

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 2) by Arik on Saturday July 22 2017, @05:36AM (1 child)

      by Arik (4543) on Saturday July 22 2017, @05:36AM (#542756) Journal
      I finally found a job in a paper
      Movin' barrels at a chemical plant
      There's shiny-looking dust on my fingers
      Goin' up my nose and into my lungs

      It's the Kepone poisoning-Minamata
      Kepone poisoning-Minamata
      At the grimy Kepone Factory
      Turning people into bonzai trees

      Now I've got these splitting headaches
      I can't quite get it up no more
      I can't sleep and it's driving me crazy
      I shake all day and I'm seeing double

      Kepone poisoning-Minamata
      Kepone poisoning-Minamata

      Gonna go down your big metal building
      Gonna slam right through your bright metal door
      Gonna grab you by your sta-prest collar
      And ram some kepone down your throat

      The lawyer says 'That's the breaks, kid
      Gonna gnarl and rot the rest of your life
      If you don't sue, we'll give you a Trans-Am:'
      That I'll never drive cos I shake all the time

      'Cause of the Kepone poisoning Minamata
      At the grimy Kepone factory
      --
      If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @06:20AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @06:20AM (#542778)

        Well yeah, they're the Dead Kennedys.