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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.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @05:32AM (5 children)
traditional.
However only a few islands/villages performed much whaling prior to the post-WW2 boom.
Mostly today it is a giant FU to the international community dictating what a sovereign nation can and cannot do. Something that while I dislike their choice of target, I understand the national and political motivation for doing so.
That said: Is there even still enough interest in whale meat in Japan to warrant commercial level whaling activities? I was lead to believe that the majority of younger japanese don't particularly like the flavor and the older mostly liked it because it was a staple of their school lunches.
(Score: 2) by n1 on Saturday July 22 2017, @06:01AM (2 children)
From TFS:
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @06:09AM (1 child)
Japan should publish a science journal with only whaling research in it. Let's see how many papers they can come up with every year.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @06:32PM
contents:
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @06:05AM (1 child)
Yes! This is why the United States of America insists on allowing child soldiers into its ranks! Why it uses prison/slave labor in its Volkswagen plants. Why the United States insists on executing children and the mentally impaired? So, killing Baby Beluga Minke Shamus is just like that. Seriously. Fuck you, world.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @05:49PM
we have plenty of humans. not so many whales. it's pretty simple really.