Japanese whaling ships to return home after killing 440 minke whales

TOKYO, April 3 (AFP) - Five Japanese whaling ships will return to Japan later this week after killing 440 minke whales in the Antarctic Ocean under the country's 'research' whaling programme, the Japanese government said Wednesday. The crew of the vessels, which are due to dock Thursday in three different ports, observed 5,460 minke whales in 2,289 pods, the Fisheries Agency said in a statement. 'This research whaling was conducted under international laws ... with the aim of collecting data about whale resources and to study the environment and ecology of the Antarctic Ocean,' it said. 'This research fleet met persistent obstruction from Greenpeace. We, however, were able to accomplish the mission with few adverse effects (from the protests) by formally protesting Greenpeace's action,' it said. Japan stopped commercial whaling in 1988, in line with the International Whaling Commission's moratorium adopted in 1982 and which took effect in 1986. But it began what it calls 'research' whaling in 1987 using a loophole in the 1982 moratorium on commercial whaling permitting the killing of hundreds of minke and other whales a year for research purposes. Before the fleet's departure for the Antartic, New Zealand attacked Japan for its 'despicable' decision to kill minke whales there.

Gee David, I 'm surprised you post an article such as this which suggests that Japan's research isn't such (by putting the word 'research' consistantly in quotes) and also pointing out Japan's exploitation of a loophole to kill whales.

Why? Just because you antiwhalers have a gross bias it doesn't mean that I do too.

I'm quite happy for people to read various sources and make informed judgements about both the content and quality of the article.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA (a little counter friction there)

Richard Hayduke Lives! 'Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine.' Henry David Thoreau

Killed = 440, Tim.

Come on Tim, I would expect better from you. 5640 is not the estimated population for which the sample size is calculated.

That fact of the matter is that this year the Japanese observers have spotted greater numbers of whales than in previous years, and this is inspite of year on year samples taken for research purposes. While one can't look at just this year's figures and say categorically that whale numbers are increasing, it is more than obvious that there is a very robust population of whales in the antarctic ocean.

Whoops, my mistake for not thinking to read your follow up post before replying.

I believe the sample size is calculated using the last assessment of whale numbers, which was 760,000. The sample size is thus only about 0.05%, apparently the minimum size for the sample for any valid conclusions to be drawn.

I found it quite remarkable when I first heard that they were taking the minimum valid sample size.

The Japanese could quite validly take more whales than what they are taking, yet they choose to take the minimum. I guess there just isn't enough demand for the whale meat.

Freakin Japanese a-holes. Let's shoot them with a harpoon gun and drag them across the sea!!!!

hey dont you think that japenies whaleing is rong .
they kill whales almost every single day its not far to the whales. there indagured they all diserve
to live. .... so come on lets save all the whales. they all deserve it they want you to care about them., please help them

I agree with you mc mc , but... do you know of an effective method to stop them?