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On Sunday, a fleet of four ships left the southern Japanese port of Shimonoseki for a scientific expedition to Antarctic waters. While a brass band reportedly played “Popeye the Sailor Man”, crew members’ families lining the docks waved flags depicting a smiling whale.
Though it sounds like a charming but everyday send off, the small ceremony attracted media attention from across the world: the ships are part of Japan’s whaling fleet, and this year they are off to hunt humpback whales.
Japan’s Fisheries Agency maintains that most species of whale are not endangered, and continues to permit the country’s fleet to hunt them for “scientific” purposes under the annual JARPN II programme. This year, the country has awarded itself a quota of 50 of the once critically-endangered humpback.
Whale meat from such hunts is sold on the open market in Japan, and the proceeds used to fund further hunts. Australian journalist Justin McCurry ate at “one of the premier whale-meat restaurants in Japan” as part of his August 2006 article on the practice.
However, research from January 2006 suggests that stockpiles of whale meat in Japan are rising in the face of sluggish demand, while an article in the Independent yesterday claims that meat from the humpback “doesn’t even taste very good”. In May 2006, the Japanese Fisheries Agency reportedly backed a new wholesaler charged with boosting the consumption of whale meat.
Environmental groups have greeted the season’s start with dismay, while the Greenpeace ship Esperanza aims to shadow the fleet and use “direct, non-violent action” to stop the hunt. A post today on the ship’s blog, though, reveals that things didn’t quite start as planned.
IMAGE by Flickr user f0rbe5
