- News>
- Environment
Japan set to sell tons of whale meat
Tokyo, Nov 27: Thousands of tons of meat from whales hunted under a government-backed research program will start arriving in Japanese markets and canneries this week in an annual sale expected to raise 3.36 billion yen (US$33.3 million) to help fund the programme, long denounced by environmentalists as a front for commercial whaling.
Tokyo, Nov 27: Thousands of tons of meat from whales hunted under a government-backed research program will start arriving in Japanese markets and canneries this week in an annual sale expected to raise 3.36 billion yen (US$33.3 million) to help fund the programme, long denounced by environmentalists as a front for commercial whaling.
Commercial whaling was banned in 1986 to protect the endangered mammals, but the international whaling commission approved restricted hauls by Japan a year later for research purposes.
Whaling expeditions organised by a government-affiliated Japanese Research Institute bring back hundreds of Minke whales and other species every year. Japan, which is one of the world's largest consumers of whale meat, says it is gathering data to build a case that whale numbers have recovered enough to sustain limited commercial hunts. The meat is eventually sold to wholesalers and makes its way into restaurants and school lunches. That's one of the main reasons the research program has long been denounced as banned commercial whaling in disguise by environmental groups and anti-whaling nations including the united states.
Japanese fisheries officials emphasize that an IWC convention requires any whales hunted for scientific purposes to be processed. The government-subsidised Institute of Cetacean Research said in a statement today it plans to market 1,346.2 metric tons (1480 u.S. Tons) of meat from 200 whales hunted between may and august in the northwest Pacific Ocean.
Bureau Report
Whaling expeditions organised by a government-affiliated Japanese Research Institute bring back hundreds of Minke whales and other species every year. Japan, which is one of the world's largest consumers of whale meat, says it is gathering data to build a case that whale numbers have recovered enough to sustain limited commercial hunts. The meat is eventually sold to wholesalers and makes its way into restaurants and school lunches. That's one of the main reasons the research program has long been denounced as banned commercial whaling in disguise by environmental groups and anti-whaling nations including the united states.
Japanese fisheries officials emphasize that an IWC convention requires any whales hunted for scientific purposes to be processed. The government-subsidised Institute of Cetacean Research said in a statement today it plans to market 1,346.2 metric tons (1480 u.S. Tons) of meat from 200 whales hunted between may and august in the northwest Pacific Ocean.
Bureau Report