Commercial Whaling

A fleet of Japanese whalers set out Saturday for a three-month hunt in the northwest Pacific where they will kill endangered sei whales for the first time in more than 25 years. The five vessels plan to catch 260 whales--150 minke, 50 Bryde's, 50 sei and 10 sperm whales, the Fisheries Agency said. Sei whales have not been taken since their near-extinction led nations to halt commercial hunts of the species 26 years ago.

Japan's research whaling program is too small to be scientifically accurate, so more whales should be killed next year, the head of the program said today. Fukuzo Nagasaki, director of the semi-governmental Institute of Cetacean Research, said the 300 whales being caught by Japanese ships in the Antarctic this year are not enough to make an accurate assessment of whale stocks and should be increased to 825 next season.

The International Whaling Commission cleared the way Thursday for the Makah Indian tribe of Washington state to hunt gray whales despite strong objections from environmental groups and several countries. The United States claimed a victory in the most controversial decision at the IWC's annual meeting in Monaco after member governments approved a joint U.S.-Russian request for a five-year quota of 620 gray whales for native hunters.

The International Whaling Commission, meeting in Glasgow, Scotland, reached a contentious compromise between its pro- and anti-whaling factions Friday that will continue a ban on commercial whaling through next April. But the compromise appeared to move the IWC a step closer to a resumption of commercial whaling, banned in the world's oceans since 1988. And it comes at a time when at least one country has already announced that it will defy the moratorium on whaling.

No one was surprised when conservation organizations such as the Natural Resources Defense Council challenged the anti-environmental policies of President George W. Bush. But it's a shock to many when we part company with the Obama administration. It happens. And it's happening right now on the question of what to do about commercial whaling and, more specifically, whether to maintain the 25-year-old moratorium against the killing of whales for profit. Last week, the International Whaling Commission announced a proposed 10-year deal, spearheaded by the Obama administration, that would suspend the moratorium and allow whaling countries to kill whales legally for commercial purposes for the first time in a generation.

The International Whaling Commission's scientific committee released a grim report Monday in San Diego, indicating that the populations of some whale species are much smaller than previously thought. The most seriously depleted is the blue whale, the Earth's largest animal, whose number is estimated at 453, but could be as low as 200. Before the advent of widespread commercial whaling, there were an estimated 250,000 blue whales in Antarctic waters. Recent estimates had put their numbers at 6,000 to 11,000.

Before they were harpooned, sliced up and boiled for lamp oil, whales were far more plentiful in the North Atlantic than previously thought, according to new genetic analysis that could thwart any attempt to resume commercial whaling for half a century or more. For years, scientists have worked to determine what the population of whales was before the onslaught of commercial whaling.

Japan, risking U.S. trade sanctions, will send out ships today to expand its research whaling operations, a move critics called a cover for banned commercial whaling. The decision comes after the International Whaling Commission earlier this month passed a resolution rejecting Japan's rationale for expanding whaling. Commercial whaling has been banned by the IWC for almost 15 years, but a limited amount of whale hunting for research purposes is still allowed.

Japan, risking U.S. trade sanctions, will send out ships today to expand its research whaling operations, a move critics called a cover for banned commercial whaling. The decision comes after the International Whaling Commission earlier this month passed a resolution rejecting Japan's rationale for expanding whaling. Commercial whaling has been banned by the IWC for almost 15 years, but a limited amount of whale hunting for research purposes is still allowed.

Weighing up to 80 tons and almost twice the length of a school bus, the massive fin whale ? known as the greyhound of the sea for its swimming speed ? was the victim of decades of commercial slaughter that killed the whales by the tens of thousands each year. Then, in 1986, with the species on the brink of extinction, the nations of the world agreed to a moratorium on commercial whaling, and this magnificent animal got a reprieve. Except, that is, in Iceland. Today, over a quarter of a century after the moratorium took effect, Iceland is escalating its hunting and trading of fin whales (and other whale species)