Japan’s starts first commercial whale hunt in more than 30 years

Five small ships sailed out of harbour on Monday in Japan’s first commercial whale hunt in more than three decades.

The decision has aroused global condemnation and fears for the fate of whales.

The ships, which are set to be joined by vessels from the southern port of Shimonoseki, will spend much of the summer hunting for minke and Baird’s beaked whales.

Japan has long said few whale species are endangered, and news in December that it was leaving the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to resume hunting was the culmination of years of campaigns by industry supporters and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose constituency includes a city that has long whaled.

Japan began whaling for scientific research a year after a 1986 ban on commercial whaling, aiming to gather what it called crucial population data, but it abandoned commercial whaling in 1988.

Critics said the programme was simply commercial whaling in disguise, after the meat of animals taken in scientific whaling ended up on store shelves and in restaurants.

This year’s quota, including minkes, sei whales and Bryde’s whales, was about 220.

 

Via The Guardian