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Japan wants to expand commercial whaling (to larger species)
Japan’s Fisheries Agency has proposed expanding commercial whaling off the country’s coast to include minke whales, a larger species than the three currently allowed.
© Lusa
Mundo Japão
The proposal comes five years after Japan resumed commercial whaling in its exclusive economic zone, having left the International Whaling Commission in 2019.
Japan ended three decades of so-called scientific whaling, which critics said was a cover for commercial hunting that was banned by the commission in 1988.
Government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi, whose electoral district is home to a major whaling community, said on Thursday that the government supports the sustainable use of whales as part of Japan's traditional food culture and plans to promote the industry.
"Whales are an important food resource and we believe they should be sustainably utilised like any other marine resources, based on scientific evidence. It is also important to maintain Japan's traditional food culture," Hayashi told reporters.
The Fisheries Agency said it is seeking public comment on the proposed plan until June 5, and could seek approval at its next review meeting in mid-June.
The addition of minke whales to the list of species that can be caught comes after studies confirmed the population in the North Pacific had recovered sufficiently.
Japanese whalers last year caught 294 whales, less than 80% of their quota and fewer than the number taken in the Antarctic and the northwest Pacific under the research programme.
Japan's whaling has long been a source of controversy and attacks by conservationists, but the outcry has largely subsided since Japan ended its much-criticised Antarctic research whaling in 2019 and returned to commercial whaling limited to Japanese waters.
Whale meat was a cheap source of protein in Japan in the lean years after World War Two, with consumption peaking at 233,000 tonnes in 1962. But it has since been replaced by other meats and consumption has fallen to about 2,000 tonnes in recent years, according to Fisheries Agency data.
Japanese officials want to increase that to about 5,000 tonnes to keep the industry afloat.
Read Also: Cruise ship arrives in New York with 13-metre-long dead whale on its bow (Portuguese version)
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