|You are in: Science/Nature|
Wednesday, 17 July, 2002, 11:12 GMT 12:12 UK
A clash of culinary cultures
From the viewpoint of many foreigners, or gaijin, it seems a barbaric and totally unnecessary trade akin to killing elephants or giraffes.
But few people in the West have ever heard the Japanese side of the story.
I went to Japan to find out why the Japanese are so determined to resume the large-scale slaughter of these huge and seemingly harmless creatures.
The Japan Whaling Association (JWA) and the Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) are housed in the same building in a harbourside suburb of Tokyo.
In the late 1940s, her father was the Minister of Agriculture and one of the men who persuaded the Supreme Commander of the US Occupation Forces, Douglas MacArthur, to allow the Japanese to resume whaling to alleviate the post-war food crisis.
She says the position held by most anti-whaling campaigners is ridiculous.
"Why should one particular species be excluded from the food chain?" she argues.
The Japanese have been carrying out organised ocean whaling since the 10th Century and there are cave drawings dating back 5,500 years showing people of the Japanese islands hunting offshore whales with spears.
"If I ate my cat or my dog then I would feel disgusted but in Korea people eat dogs and in places like Tanzania people do not eat lobsters or shrimps.
"In India, most people do not eat cows on religious grounds but you don't see India trying to tell the US not to eat beef," she says.
'Criticism is not racism'
A spokesman for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS), Victoria Reinthal, said the Japanese often used the cultural argument to prevent criticism of their whaling.
Miss Reinthal told BBC News Online: "If whales belong to anyone then they belong to everyone.
"It is not just Japan that WDCS and others have an issue with, but with Norway and anyone that seeks to commercially exploit these creatures."
Ms Misaki says the populations of most whale species have recovered in the last 16 years and there is even evidence that whales need to be culled in certain areas because they are affecting fish stocks.
Dr Seiji Ohsumi, director general of the ICR, says it is a myth that whales eat only plankton and krill, the tiny shrimp-like creatures which inhabit the oceans of the Antarctic and South Pacific.
He points to photographs taken by ICR personnel of the stomach contents of whales caught under the IWC's scientific clause.
"In Japanese coastal waters, we have discovered that they eat many other species, including pollock, squid and saury, which are very important to Japanese fishermen.
"It has been proved that in fishing areas whales invade and catch those species which would otherwise be caught by Japanese fishermen," says Dr Ohsumi.
Minke whales have been known to break into fishermen's nets and eat their fish, he says.
"Large areas of the Brazilian rain forest have had to be cleared to allow space for grazing the cattle which supply the beef to the fast-food chains.
"Cattle provide huge emissions of methane which are harmful to the environment.
"By comparison, there is an abundant population of whales who inhabit the three-quarters of the globe which is covered by water," said Dr Ohsumi.
He accepts that some cetacean species are still endangered and lists the Yangtze River Dolphin in China, the Harbour Porpoise in the North Pacific and the northern right whale off the East Coast of the US.
But he says many cetaceans are abundant and claims there are around two million sperm whales worldwide.
Greenpeace disputes many of the Japanese claims.
"For instance, the Antarctic blue whales were thought to number around 250,000 prior to commercial hunting but now there are only 1,000 left and show little sign of recovery despite being completely protected since the 1960s."
He adds: "It is often very difficult to say with any certainty what is happening to a given whale population because of the inherent difficulties in counting whales."
Ms Misaki says the US double-crossed Japan in 1986.
"Under IWC rules, a member country can exempt itself by objecting to a decision it considers unreasonable.
"When the moratorium was introduced, Japan, like Norway, lodged an objection.
"This catch was worth 10 times as much as the whaling industry at the time so Japan cancelled its objection.
"But the US double-crossed us and two years later they excluded Japanese fishermen anyway." By then it was too late to object.
Dr Ohsumi also disputes claims by anti-whaling campaigners that the killing process is long and cruel.
"Many years ago whales used to suffer for a long time. But technology has improved and nowadays 60% of whales die instantly and the average time of death is two-and-a-half minutes," he says.
17 Jul 02 | Science/Nature
24 May 02 | Asia-Pacific
23 May 02 | Asia-Pacific
29 Jun 02 | Asia-Pacific
24 May 02 | In Depth
19 Jun 02 | Science/Nature
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites
Top Science/Nature stories now:
Links to more Science/Nature stories are at the foot of the page.
|E-mail this story to a friend|
Links to more Science/Nature stories
To BBC Sport>> | To BBC Weather>> | To BBC World Service>>
© MMIII | News Sources | Privacy