[Vision2020] Whaling Ship Goes Home Early

[J Ford]

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By ERIC TALMADGE, Associated Press Writer Wed Feb 28, 2:02 PM ET

TOKYO - A Japanese whaling fleet is heading home after high-seas 
brinksmanship with environmental groups and a deadly fire that crippled its 
mother ship and ended the hunt in the Antarctic hundreds of whales short of 
its goal.

The return of the six-ship fleet brought to an early end this year's hunt, 
which had been scheduled to continue through March. Officials said it was 
the first time in the 20 years since the scientific hunts began that one had 
to end early.

"We are very disappointed," Takahide Naruko, the head of the Fisheries 
Agency's Far Seas Division, said Wednesday.

Officials also lodged a strong protest over "vicious and reckless" attempts 
by whaling opponents to sabotage the hunt, which killed 508 whales out of a 
target of 860.

The fire aboard the Nisshin Maru two weeks ago killed one crew member and 
left the vessel unable to sail under its own power for 10 days, prompting 
protests from New Zealand and from the environmental group Greenpeace over 
potential oil and chemical spills or damage to penguin colonies.

Naruko said the cause of the fire was under investigation. He said the 
Nisshin Maru would likely be repaired in time for the next hunt, in the 
northwest Pacific in May, when Japan plans to kill 350 whales.

The fleet is part of a scientific whaling program that Japan says provides 
crucial data for the
International Whaling Commission — which allows the hunts — on populations, 
feeding habits and distribution of the mammals.

But the program has long been the target of environmental groups, which say 
it is a pretext for Japan to keep its whalers afloat despite an 
international ban on commercial whaling imposed by the International Whaling 
Commission in 1986.

After researchers complete their studies of the killed whales, the meat is 
sold in Japan for food. Naruko said that although the number of whales 
killed fell short of the target, it was sufficient to conduct some research 
and to distribute for sale.

"I don't think there will be a significant increase in the cost of whale 
meat," he said.

Profits from the sales help fund the research program.

Japan has been increasingly strident in its calls for a lifting of the 
commercial whaling ban. This month, it hosted a conference of whaling 
supporters and issued a stinging rebuke of dozens of anti-whaling nations 
that stayed away, saying their absence would prevent reforms.

Tokyo maintains that whaling is a national tradition and a vital part of its 
food culture, and argues that whale stocks have sufficiently recovered since 
1986 to allow a resumption of limited hunts of certain species.

But Greenpeace and other environmental groups say lifting the ban would open 
the door to excessive kills, and that research could be done without killing 
whales.

This year's protests, led by the Sea Shepherd group, were particularly 
heated.

Japanese officials on Tuesday showed videos of protesters aboard a Sea 
Shepherd ship — flying a skull-and-crossbones pirate flag — launching smoke 
canisters, throwing containers filled with chemicals, and dropping ropes and 
nets to try to entangle the ships' propellors.

One video also showed a protest ship ramming a whaling vessel.

"Such vicious and reckless actions by the Sea Shepherd not only violate the 
international agreements established in order to prohibit piracy and 
guarantee the safety of navigation, they are inexcusable criminal acts," 
said Hiroshi Hatanaka, head of the Institute of Cetacean Research, which is 
in charge of the hunts.

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said Monday that the Nisshin Maru — 
carrying 343,000 gallons of fuel oil — posed a huge risk to the pristine 
Antarctic environment and called the fire a "disaster." Greenpeace offered 
to tow the ship into calmer seas.

The whalers declined the offer.

Japanese officials stress that no oil has leaked from the ship and said it 
safely moved away from the Antarctic coast under its own power last weekend.



J  :]

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