Japan's whaling fleet leaves port for annual hunt

Dec 2, 2010, 14:28 GMT

Tokyo - The Japanese whaling fleet left Thursday for this year's hunt in the Antarctic later than usual and with a much smaller fleet, the Greenpeace environmental group said.

The reason for the delay was the lack of demand for whale meat, the non-government organization said. Traditionally, the fleet leaves Japan in November and returns in April.

'The reduced size of the Japanese whaling fleet means they will be unable to catch more than half of their quota,' said Wakao Hanaoka, oceans campaigner for Greenpeace Japan, which said the reduced fleet was caused by ships being sold or scrapped.

The whalers 'are up to their necks in it,' Greenpeace marine biologist Thilo Maack said. 'First, they lose their tanker and refrigerator ship, then their sightings ship. Now they have to satisfy themselves with a halved quota and a drastically shorter hunting season.'

A majority of Japanese do not eat whale meat, leading to the accumulation of a huge stockpile. According to the latest government data available, as of the end of August, there were 5,790 tons of whale meat in cold storage.

Japan halted commercial whaling in 1987, complying with an international moratorium which went into effect in 1986. But the nation has used a loophole in the agreement to continue whaling under the premise of conducting it for scientific research. Critics, however, accuse Japan of doing it for money.

Environmentalists said about 35,000 whales have been hunted down since the moratorium was imposed.

Some supporters argued whaling is part of Japanese culture and must, therefore, be respected by foreigners. Whalers also argued that the ban on commercial whaling has brought about a dramatic resurgence in the population of certain whale species, particularly the minke whale.

As the Japanese whalers left port Thursday, so did the Sea Shepherd environmental group to try to prevent the Japanese hunt. It has engaged in violent clashes with the whalers on the high sea in the past.

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