Doubts on Japan’s whale trade denial
Peter Afford, 7/6/08;
Japanese officials deny knowledge of whale meat imported from Iceland and Norway, the first international commercial trade since the early 1990s, although the exporter says it has already been landed and Greenpeace has identified the importer. Government approvals are necessary to import and sell whale meat, but Japanese Fisheries Agency and Customs officials said. yesterday no applications had been received. Earlier, however, the chief executive of the exporter, Icelandic whaling company Hvalur, told the Kyodo news agency a consignment of fin whale meat was undergoing routine customs inspection at a Japanese port. Resumption of the whale trade comes during preparations for another controversial annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission, opening on June 23 in Santiago, Chile, which will be attended by Environment Minister Peter Garrett.
No Internet Text; The Australian
The export of 80 tonnes of fin whale meat from Iceland and five tonnes of minke whale from Norway, confirmed by Hvalur boss Kristjan Loftsson, defies the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species.
All three countries have claimed exemptions from the general CITES ban on trading whale products, though Japan last took whale meat from Norway in 1989 and Iceland in 1991.
Four years ago, Tokyo refused requests to resume imports from Norway and Iceland which, like Japan, insist on a cultural right to hunt whales, but, also like Japan’s government-supported industry, have trouble persuading people to eat all they catch. While Japan operates under cover of the “scientific whaling” clause in the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, the smaller Norwegian and Icelandic industries are straight hunting operations.
In the latest figures from the Institute of Cetacean Research, Japan had a stockpile of 2485 tonnes of whale meat at March 31 — and that does not include about 5000 tonnes from the contentious Southern Ocean “scientific whaling” program.
Mr Loftsson told Kyodo the fin whale meat sent to Japan had been in deep freeze since it was landed in 2006. Fin whales, which Japan resumed killing in Antarctic waters in 2006-07, are listed as an “at risk” species, although minkes are plentiful.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has indicated he will raise whaling with his Japanese counterpart, Yasuo Fukuda, when they meet in Tokyo on Thursday.