Japan's whale meat stocks hit record high, activists say (Roundup)

Jan 5, 2011, 9:07 GMT

Tokyo - Sluggish consumption of whale meat in Japan may have pushed its stocks to a record high of more than 6,000 tons in August, a conservation group said Wednesday.

The Iruka & Kujira (Dolphin and Whale) Action Network said government data revealed 5,790 tons of whale meat in storerooms across the country, the second-largest level since 5,969 tons were recorded in April 2006.

The latest data only covered around 500 warehouses, down from 651 in the previous report in December 2009, the group said. The activists estimated that the total stores of whale meat, including warehouses not counted this year, were likely to exceed 6,000 tons.

While whale hunting near Antarctica has drawn international criticism, many Japanese do not eat the meat, which results in the accumulation of a huge stock pile.

'The supply was small and wholesale prices of whale meat have been cut in the past two years,' journalist Junko Sakuma said. 'But the pace of decline in stocks has been slowing as Japanese people are moving away from whale meat.'

Japan officially stopped commercial whaling in 1987, complying with an international moratorium that took effect the previous year. But the nation has used a loophole in the agreement to continue whaling under the name of 'scientific research.'

Environmentalists say around 35,000 whales have been hunted down since the moratorium was imposed.

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