Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Thursday 27 december 2018

Japan to resume commercial whaling, but not in Antarctic

By MARI YAMAGUCHI quit the commission. has reduced its catch fol-
Associated Press However, New Zealand lowing international pro-
TOKYO (AP) — Japan an- Foreign Minister Winston tests and declining de-
nounced Wednesday that Peters joined Australia in mand for whale meat at
it is leaving the Internation- welcoming Japan’s with- home. The withdrawal from
al Whaling Commission to drawal from the southern the IWC may be a face-
resume commercial hunts ocean. Japan was the only saving step to stop Japan’s
for the animals for the first country with an ambition to ambitious Antarctic hunts
time in 30 years, but said it return to commercial whal- and scale down the scope
would no longer go to the ing in the Antarctic Ocean. of whaling to around the
Antarctic for its much-criti- Japanese Fisheries Agency Japanese coasts.
cized annual killings. official and longtime IWC Japan slashed its annual
Japan switched to what it negotiator Hideki Moronuki quota in the Antarctic by
calls research whaling after said Japan would use the about one third after the
the IWC imposed a mora- IWC’s method to carefully International Court of Jus-
torium on commercial determine a catch quota tice ruled in 2014 that the
whaling in the 1980s, and on the basis of science, country’s research whaling
now says stocks have re- but declined to give an program wasn’t as scien-
covered enough to resume estimate. He said Japan tific as it had argued. Ja-
commercial hunts. plans to use seven existing pan currently hunts about
Chief Cabinet Secretary In this September, 2017, photo, a minke whale is unloaded at whaling hubs on the Pacif- 600 whales annually in the
Yoshihide Suga said Japan a port after a whaling for scientific purposes in Kushiro, in the ic coast for the upcoming Antarctic and the Northern
would resume commercial northernmost main island of Hokkaido. commercial hunts. Pacific.
whaling in July “in line with Associated Press Moronuki said Japan is Fisheries officials have said
Japan’s basic policy of eries Agency officials. tic creatures,” Sam Annes- starting with a modest plan Japan annually consumes
promoting sustainable use The IWC imposed the mor- ley, executive director of because it has to figure thousands of tons of whale
of aquatic living resources atorium on commercial Greenpeace Japan, said out if or how commercial meat from the research
based on scientific evi- whaling three decades in a statement. “The gov- whaling can be a viable hunts, mainly by older Jap-
dence.” ago due to a dwindling ernment of Japan must industry. “What’s most im- anese seeking a nostalgic
He added that Japan is dis- whale population. In 1987, urgently act to conserve portant is to have a diverse meal. It’s a fraction of the
appointed that the IWC — Japan switched to what is marine ecosystems, rather and stable food supply,” country’s whale meat sup-
which he said is dominated calls research whaling, but than resume commercial he said. ply of about 200,000 tons
by conservationists — fo- the program has been criti- whaling.” The Fisheries Agency said before the IWC morato-
cuses on the protection of cized as a cover for com- Australia’s government, Japan plans to catch three rium. Critics say they doubt
whale stocks even though mercial hunting since the often a vocal critic of Ja- kinds of whale that are be- commercial whaling can
the commission has a trea- meat is sold on the market pan’s whaling policies, said lieved to have sufficient be a sustainable industry
ty mandate for both whale at home. in a statement that it was stocks — minke, sei and because younger Japa-
conservation and the de- Japanese officials said Ja- “extremely disappointed” Bryde’s. Japan has hunted nese may not view the ani-
velopment of the whaling pan, even after leaving the with Japan’s decision to whales for centuries, but mals as food.q
industry. whaling convention, will re-
“Regrettably, we have main as an observer to the
reached a decision that it IWC and plans to continue Russia: Hole drilled from inside
is impossible in the IWC to participating in the group’s
seek the coexistence of scientific meetings and an- Int’l Space Station capsule
states with different views,” nual conferences.
he said at a news confer- The environmental group
ence. Greenpeace condemned enforcement agencies are
Suga said the commercial Wednesday’s announce- investigating what caused
hunts would be limited to ment and disputed Ja- it. Sergei Prokopyev said in-
Japan’s territorial waters pan’s view that whale vestigators were looking at
and its 200-mile (323-kilo- stocks have recovered, samples he and crewmate
meter) exclusive economic and noted that ocean life Oleg Kononenko collected
zone along its coasts. He is being threatened by pol- during a Dec. 12 space-
said Japan would stop its lution as well as overfishing. walk. Prokopyev and two
annual whaling expedi- “The declaration today is other astronauts returned
tions to the Antarctic and out of step with the interna- to Earth last week from a
northwest Pacific oceans. tional community, let alone 197-day space station mis-
Non-signatory states are the protection needed to sion. The hole in the Russian
not allowed to do so, ac- safeguard the future of our Soyuz spacecraft attached
cording to Japanese Fish- oceans and these majes-
to the station was spotted
on Aug. 30. The crew dis-
In this Wednesday, June 6, 2018 file photo, Russian cosmonaut covered a leak that was
Sergey Prokopyev, crew member of the mission to the creating a slight loss of pres-
International Space Station, ISS, waves as he boards the sure and plugged the hole
spaceship prior to the launch at the Russian leased Baikonur with epoxy and gauze. Pro-
cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. kopyev said at a news con-
Associated Press ference the cavity started
MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian tional Space Station said from the capsule’s interior
cosmonaut who explored Monday that the opening and “it’s up to the investi-
a mysterious hole in a cap- was drilled from inside the gative organs when that
sule docked to the Interna- spacecraft and Russian law hole was made.”q