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Protected Whales Found in Japan's Supermarkets


Environment  (tags: whaling, japan, endangered whales )

Claudia
- 59 days ago - sciencenews.org
So, we find, these toothless whales are being protected by regs that also lack teeth. What hope is there for them?
Comments

Claudia Peters (322)
Monday September 28, 2009, 9:50 am
Many of us get a feeling of satisfaction when we learn that governments or international bodies have issued regulations to protect imperiled wildlife. Such as whales. Then we encounter a paper like the one in the October Animal Conservation that snaps us out of our complacency. Its new data drive home once more that rules have value only if they’ll be enforced.

The new paper by Vimoksalehi Lukoschek of the University of California, Irvine, and her colleagues involves minke whales living off of Japan and Korea. The smallest type of filter-feeding baleen whales with pleated throats, adult minkes typically reach a length of 26 feet and weigh in at 10 tons. But the stat that matters most is their market value — perhaps $10,000 (U.S.) per adult.

Although there has been a moratorium on hunting whales since 1986, caveats exist. For instance, the International Whaling Commission, former whaling nations that imposed the ban, allows for “scientific whaling,” a misnomer by any definition of science. Japan, the only nation that still carries out this practice, allows the harvest of up to 160 north Pacific minke whales per year. However, they’re only supposed to come from a relatively healthy population known as the O stock. An already-hammered J stock has protected status under the IWC, meaning that its population should be totally off limits to whalers.

A second caveat involves whales that may be netted inadvertently by fishing fleets. When commercial fishers haul in nontargeted species — known as bycatch — those off-limits fish usually cannot be sold. Prohibiting their sale serves to discourage practices that foster bycatch.

Ironically, when that netted bycatch involves whales, some nations — notably Japan and Korea — allow their fishers to kill and sell the animals. Such a policy “provides an incentive to promote, rather than reduce, any net entanglement,” notes Lukoschek. “In this regard,” the marine ecologist argues, “the bycatch of whales in Japan and Korea is more like an unregulated commercial hunt than an incidental or illegal fishery.”

But that wouldn’t be a big deal if the minke bycatch were small. Lukoschek and her colleagues now offer data indicating it’s anything but.

For more than a decade, members of her team — including conservation geneticist C. Scott Baker of Oregon State University's Marine Mammal Institute — have been periodically sampling whale-meat products from stores, markets and restaurants in Korea and Japan. Both nations have a long heritage of eating whales.

In the new analysis, the researchers performed DNA fingerprinting on nearly 1,200 Japanese whale products that had been purchased between December 1997 and June 2004. Genetics confirmed that roughly 250 samples came from north Pacific minkes. (The rest came from 25 other species of whales and related cetaceans. And there was one woefully mislabeled product. Its contents: horse meat.)

Not only could the new genetic analyses identify whale tissue by species, but in some instances they could even differentiate which community of a particular species a landed whale had come from. For instance, J-stock minkes versus O stock animals.

And that’s what these researchers homed in on for their new paper. In theory, there should be no J-stock whales, since Japan’s scientific whaling had no permits for animals from this depleted stock. In fact, the new paper reports, 46 percent of Japan’s marketplace minke meat has been coming from J-stock whales.

That reflects the coastal fishing and “scientific” whaling, Baker concludes, because the J stock tends to prefer coastal waters to living on the high seas.

“Until recently — literally until June — Japan had pretty much denied that J-stock whales were found along its Pacific coast,” Baker says. “But it’s quite clear now, from their own work, which they’ve reported [at the IWC meeting’s scientific sessions] — but not published — that they are taking a high proportion of J-stock in their large ‘scientific’ hunt.” He adds that despite this, Japan has not made any direct efforts to limit its coastal whaling.

One impetus for his team’s new analysis was to see if a 2001 policy shift in Japan spiked J-stock harvests. Prior to that year, fishers could not legally sell to commercial firms any bycatch minkes. They were supposed to be destroyed or sold locally, and then reported to national authorities. Official figures indicated that through the 1990s, about 20 to 30 minkes were taken as bycatch in Japan. After 2001, however, bycatch whales could be marketed commercially — and suddenly yearly minke bycatch tallies jumped to between 89 and 137 animals.

The new Animal Conservation analysis reports finding no corresponding spike in the share of minkes — or the proportion of J-stock minkes — in commercial whale-meat products after 2001. Lukoschek’s team now concludes that similarly large numbers of J-stock animals were harvested before Japan’s shift in bycatch policy: Those earlier-netted animals were merely sold on the black market, Lukoschek suspects, where they “entered into the complex supply chain of commercial whale meat in Japan.”

An earlier analysis of the situation based on 81 products turned up evidence that just 31 percent of minke meat in Japan came from protected J-stock whales. At that rate, estimates had indicated this population of animals could go extinct within just a few decades. (Its current population size remains unknown, but probably is well under 14,000 — potentially far under that, Baker observes.)

The latest, far bigger study’s finding that J-stock animals account for 46 percent of Japan’s minke food products is, therefore, considerably more disturbing.

The Korean bycatch “is quite high too," Baker notes. "It’s been as high as 160 a year.” And he points out that a five-year analysis of Korean whale harvests, which his team published two years ago, “suggested that the reported bycatch was about half of the true take. And that’s almost certainly due to directed, illegal hunting.”

Which isn’t good for a species that was ostensibly hands-off to all in the first place.

In a commentary that also ran in the October Animal Conservation, Andrew Read of Duke University Marine Laboratory in Beaufort, N.C., used polite language to lambast Japan’s official whaling program. Its putative “scientific” activities — which have killed more than 10,000 minkes since the whaling ban went into effect — “do not conform to the basic norms of science, such as hypothesis testing," he says, "and are not necessary to manage whale populations.” Indeed, he argues, “There is no effective international or domestic oversight to ensure that these catches are either sustainable or necessary.”

So, we find, these toothless whales are being protected by regs that also lack teeth. What hope is there for them?

“We’ve been providing our data to the IWC every year,” Baker says, “and the Japanese didn’t pay much attention — until they realized [the data] were going to be published in an international journal.”

“The Japanese are responsive to international pressure,” he observes. For instance, he says that their reporting of bycatch and landings by the so-called scientific whalers “appears to be getting closer to the true take. “ What’s also needed, he argues, is official government collection — and international reporting — of regional J- vs. O-stock landings.

And, of course, ending altogether that pointless licensed whaling in the name of science or anything else.

In fact, Baker says, Japan’s begun lobbying the IWC for permission to do commercial coastal whaling, perhaps in place of “scientific” whaling. And that rankles him and other conservationists, of course, because the hammered J stock would likely bear the brunt of this hunt.
 

Claudia Peters (322)
Monday September 28, 2009, 9:51 am
Why would anyone be surprised? The japanese Whale Indutsry is run by the Yakuza! They are well know for their humanitarian acts of compassion!!!
 

Simone D. (883)
Monday September 28, 2009, 9:56 am
No not surprised. Thank you Claudia.
 

Gorilly Girl (371)
Monday September 28, 2009, 10:25 am
DO NOT TRUST F------- JAPANESE WHALERS THEY ARE LIERS AND KILLERS!!!!! The people of Japan must RISE up and speak thier minds for when one rises the rest are sure to follow!!!!!!!!! Quit letting the Japanese government keep you quiet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sick F-------er's. I so wish I could use my knowlege of certian things to sink their F------ing ships.....

Big Gorilly Hugs
 

Margaret S. (79)
Monday September 28, 2009, 10:54 am
Exactly Claudia,not surprised in the least...i agree with you
Gorilly Girl...well said!!
 

Bee Hive Lady (301)
Monday September 28, 2009, 12:13 pm
Hardly surprising. But thanks for telling us, Claudia. At least my Japanese daughter in law is a Vegan.
 

Karen S. (97)
Monday September 28, 2009, 3:28 pm
Thanks Claudia. Any regulations around "scientific whaling" and "bycatch" might as well be non-existent if no one is setting limits and boundaries or monitoring and enforcing. They are merely a way around any meaningful regulations that would actually make a difference.
 

Thomas Barlish (29)
Monday September 28, 2009, 3:34 pm
not surprised either. almost expect it from them. they just dont get it. i think greenpeace slows them down a little. thanks greenpeace.
 

bernadettemp P. (74)
Monday September 28, 2009, 4:17 pm
we do need ot dsave them thanks cladia
 

mary f. (74)
Monday September 28, 2009, 4:31 pm
no surprise there
 

Julie F. (52)
Tuesday September 29, 2009, 1:00 am
Thanks for the news Claudia, but no surprise to me what else can the Japanese find to murder ruthlessly!!!!!!
 

Pam Burton (7)
Tuesday September 29, 2009, 4:52 am
And WE KILL WOLVES in the Amerikas stating OVERPOPULATION?......The ONLY OVERPOPULATION PROBLEM IS THE HUMAN ONE which USES ANY/EVERYTHING and RETURNS ONLY GARBAGE....WE ARE A VIRUS AND WE ARE KILLING OUR HOST!!!
 

Joycey B. (693)
Tuesday September 29, 2009, 6:41 am
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! This makes me so mad. What goes around comes around and I hope it is soon. Thanks Claudia.
 

johnnie W. (23)
Tuesday September 29, 2009, 10:29 am
Sometimes I almost think 2 bombs wasn't enough..... If the people of Japan do not feel this way against whalers, then they need to stand up and do something.. Isn't this supposed to be the honorable and noble people? Where is their honor now, there is nothing in the sea they do not kill. They treat it like it was their own supermarket, no one else. If they do not stop, someONE needs to stop them, we will have fish in the ocean in 5 years. The ocean will die, and where will we be... I BELIEVE THAT ITS TIME OUR PRESIDENT TOOK THIS UP WITH THEIR EMPEROR
 

Mandi T. (261)
Tuesday September 29, 2009, 12:17 pm
No surprise here after watching Whale Wars. They are getting braver and bolder. They will lie right in your fact!
And yes, Claudiaa, they are run by the Yakuza! Damn!!!
Tks xx
 

KRISTEN B. (107)
Tuesday September 29, 2009, 2:14 pm
I LOVE AND AM SO DAMN PROUD TO KNOW YOU..IVE TRIED TO GET SEA SHEPERD ONTO MY FACE PAGE, NO GO? IS THEIR A TRICK TO GETTING IT ON THEIR?
 

Rosemary AWAY NO FWDS PLS (294)
Tuesday September 29, 2009, 10:10 pm
Claudia what can be done... Lukoschek in this article talks about net entanglement saying: "
“In this regard,” the marine ecologist argues, “the bycatch of whales in Japan and Korea is more like an unregulated commercial hunt than an incidental or illegal fishery.”
HOW CAN THE IWC OR ANYONE STOP THE JAPANESE AND KOREAN'S FROM KILLING THE WHALES?

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2009/2009-03-13-03.asp >Dated March 2009
this is an excerpt:

"The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which sends ships to interfere with Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean, condemns what it calls "this proposal of appeasement" and calls upon President Barack Obama to remove Hogarth as the U.S. commissioner to the IWC.

"The United States has a policy of not negotiating with terrorists and they should not be negotiating with poachers," said Sea Shepherd founder and president Captain Paul Watson. "The Japanese whaling industry is a criminal organization that targets endangered whales in an established international whale sanctuary."

"Hogarth's proposal is so milquetoast and weak it does not even demand an end to Southern Ocean whaling and allows this criminal activity to continue," Watson said. "The United States will be betraying the whales and marine conservationists if they allow Hogarth to advance this shameful proposal of appeasement."

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is requesting an investigation of Hogarth by the U.S. Justice Department "to see if there are other unknown factors motivating Mr. Hogarth to sell out the whales to the outlaw whalers of Japan," said Watson.

Watson is not alone in calling for Hogarth's removal.

In February, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall, a West Virginia Democrat, sent a letter to the acting secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce, calling for Hogarth's replacement "amid growing criticisms that holdover political appointees of the Bush administration are proposing to dismantle the current worldwide ban on commercial whaling."
 

Rosemary AWAY NO FWDS PLS (294)
Tuesday September 29, 2009, 10:12 pm
Doesn't it seem like we need to draft a petition calling for Hogarth's resignation and target the U.S. Department of Commerce just as Nick Rahall did in his letter? !!!
 

Helen D. (12)
Wednesday September 30, 2009, 1:42 am
When will they ever learn. Destroy every living thing now and we can all consider ourselves condemed to die.
 

Litha Moon (106)
Wednesday September 30, 2009, 10:06 am
wow I hate whaling...they are so mysterious and majestic, we know nothing about them really....
 

Pam Burton (7)
Wednesday September 30, 2009, 11:50 am
There is a Native American Story concerning Wolves.....They are the most like Humans...Family oriented-all raising the cubs-Hunt for the good of the pack-etc.....The story says that when the last wolf is gone then mankind is sure to end.....I'm not sure if it is one tribes story or if several/many tribes have the same story....All have a "flood" story also.....
just a F-Y-I.......
 

JennyLynn W. (107)
Thursday October 1, 2009, 8:18 am
No more scientific whaling - ever. Put an instant halt to all Japanese products sold in the US until they give all this up. If they can live without selling to us, fine, but they likely cannot. And we need good representation, not more corruption. It's time for the US to completely clean up our act and then be good role models who can insist that others must behave well also. We need big consequences to make Japan stop!
 

Chaz Gaily Berlusconi (251)
Thursday October 1, 2009, 10:52 am
The Japanese are pirates of the seas when it comes to whale wars... they are nortorious for their atrocities and cruelty and this is such a shame and reflects on what sort of people they are... they were once regarded as the most sophisticated people of the east... but that legacy unfortunately has become brass above their heads, and no amount of polish will take away the tarnished image they have created for themselves
 

Craig N. (0)
Friday October 2, 2009, 10:21 pm
What to do? Support the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society with as large a donation that you can afford. This is the ONLY organization that consistently gets Japan's attention when it comes to whaling!
 

Kimberly Lewis (14)
Sunday October 4, 2009, 12:18 pm
This is rather devastating. The Japanese people do not have the land mass that America or other peoples do. So, like in the Antartica and in the deserts, people find food where the can. It the case of the Japanese they mostly have to rely on the oceans for sustenance. They do not have all the land we have for agriculture and most they people are not well off financially to support importing agriculture from other countries. But, hopefully throught education and foresight. The Japanese people we be able to stop whaling and ask their law makers to protect them and to use their resources for better food supplies.
 

Julie Z. (242)
Wednesday October 14, 2009, 7:53 am
it is disgusting that Japan is killing so many whales yet we have young 4th graders in Alaska killing a whale and being celebrated as a hero and great hunter for his poeple. this hypercritcal to allow the Alaskian natives to hunt whales and yet we scream over Japan doing the same.

ALL WHALES NEED TO BE PROTECTED. THERE IS NO REASON TO USE ANY ANIMAL FOR FOOD. PLANT FOODS ARE BOUNTIFUL AND SUPPLY EVERY NUTRITIONAL NEED OF HUMANS

Animals are simply eaten because of humans greedy lustful desire to taste the animal flesh not because of health or for dietary needs.

this has to stop.
 
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