More than 120 pregnant whales were slaughtered in the latest Japanese whale hunt in Antarctica’s Southern Ocean, new documents show, reigniting calls for Australia to step up efforts to stop the annual killing spree.
A further 114 immature whales were killed as part of the so-called “scientific” whaling program, according to meeting papers from the International Whaling Commission’s scientific committee meeting this month.
A minke whale is unloaded in Kushiro, a port on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido, in 2013. Photo: AP
Japan insists on conducting its annual summer whale hunt – including killing in Australian whale sanctuaries - despite international condemnation.
The latest figures show that of 333 minke Antarctic whales killed last summer, 181 were females. Some 122 females, or 67 per cent, were pregnant.
The hunt killed 61 immature males and 53 immature females – 114 in total.
Mainah_girl on May 29th, 2018 at 11:14 UTC »
Interesting BBC article: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35397749
The article claims the reason for continued whaling is the "fact that Japan's whaling is government-run, a large bureaucracy with research budgets, annual plans, promotions and pensions." They go on to say that despite falling demand and a general consensus that there should not be any whaling by Japan, "if the number of staff in a bureaucrat's office decreases while they are in charge, they feel tremendous shame. Which means most of the bureaucrats will fight to keep the whaling section in their ministry at all costs."
Japan's other justification is that it needs to kill hundreds of whales each year to study them. But the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has systematically dismantled that argument. In 2014 it ruled that there was no scientific case for Japan's programme of "lethal research" in the Southern Ocean, and ordered Tokyo to stop.
donfelicedon2 on May 29th, 2018 at 06:34 UTC »
They had to kill over 300 whales, 120 of which were pregnant, in order to see what was in one of their stomachs?
santaynot on May 29th, 2018 at 06:27 UTC »
TIL Whales have earwax and you can tell how old they are by measuring the amount of wax in their ears. Instead of a Q-Tip, the 'researchers' use grenade-tipped harpoons. 😢