Japan considers complaint in whaling row with US
Date: 16-May-01
Country: JAPAN
Japan's whaling fleet, in defiance of widespread international criticism, set out last week on a whale hunt that targets Bryde's and sperm whales - both of which are protected under U.S. law - in addition to the more common minke whales.
The United States on Monday expressed strong opposition to the hunt and said it might consider sanctions against Japanese imports in protest.
In a statement, the Fisheries Agency said its whaling is allowed under International Whaling Commission (IWC) rules and stressed it is intended for scientific research.
"In the case that the United States invokes import sanctions, we will consider taking responses in line with international rules, possibly including filing a complaint with the World Trade Organisation," it added.
Five ships have left for the northern Pacific to take up to 160 whales, mostly the more common minke. They will return by late July.
Japanese whaling had been limited to minke whales, believed to be more numerous, until last year, when Tokyo decided to include the other two species in its programme.
International debate still rages over whether the number of Bryde's and sperm whales have increased sufficiently to allow catches.
"NO SIGNIFICANT IMPACT"
Japanese officials say the hunts are needed to discover how much whales consume of important stocks of fish.
Critics, however, charge that much of the whale meat ends up on restaurant tables and supermarket shelves.
An official at the Fisheries Agency said last week the number of whales it will take on its current hunt - 100 minkes, 50 Bryde's and 10 sperm - will not have a significant impact on any of the species.
He said the United States permits the killing of more than 60 bowhead whales each year by Inuits in Alaska for cultural reasons and said that is much more harmful.
Bowhead whales are on the World Conservation Union red list and have a population of about 7,000.
U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told a news conference on Monday that Washington remained firmly opposed to Japan taking sperm and Bryde's whales.
"We've listened to their arguments," he said, noting that the United States has had repeated contacts and discussions with Japan about whaling. "We don't think they stand up. We certainly don't think they justify a lethal whaling programme."
Japan stopped commercial whaling in 1986 in compliance with an international moratorium, but began its research programme a year later to "provide necessary data to establish a viable resource management scheme for whale populations".
Scientists from the IWC are meeting in July in London, and Japan hopes to expand the quotas on research whaling to enable it to catch more and different species.
Whale meat was an important source of protein in Japan after World War Two, and has become a gourmet food over the past few decades as prices have risen in line with falling supplies.