Trade war with Japan over whaling?
U.S. upset as Japan moves to double North Pacific catch


Japanese whalers like these have been catching minke and other whales since 1987 under a provision that allows catches for scientific research.


By Miguel Llanos
MSNBC


Feb. 28 — A year after the issue nearly led to trade sanctions by the United States, Japan has notified countries it intends to increase its whaling catch in the North Pacific — and add a type of whale that some consider endangered. The United States said it was “extremely disappointed” and the move is sure to make waves at the annual meeting where nations gather to discuss whaling issues.

“THE UNITED States has consistently strongly opposed Japan’s lethal whaling activities, and have expressed at the highest levels our opposition to their program,” Rollie Schmitten, the U.S. representative to the International Whaling Commission, told MSNBC.com.
The United States, he added, is “extremely disappointed” by the notice not only to increase the catch but to include other species. He indicated that whaling commission members opposed to Japan’s program would take up the issue at the group’s annual meeting this May.
Japan said Thursday it would increase its minke whale catch by 50 and add 50 sei whales, the latter considered an endangered species by the World Wildlife Fund. In the past Japan has hunted 100 minke whales in North Pacific waters.
Japan’s move comes two months before the IWC meets to vote on continuing the worldwide moratorium.
The moratorium allows hunting for scientific purposes, and Japan has used that clause each year since 1987, with whale meat ending up in Tokyo fish markets and restaurants.
Japan says its whale hunts are part of research into whale feeding habits, migrations and life cycles.

TRADE WAR?

The issue nearly led to a trade war with the Clinton administration in late 2000. Then Commerce Secretary Norman Mineta accused Japan of having “no reasonable scientific justification for its whaling efforts.” Japan appears to be trying to “pave the way for an outright resumption of commercial whaling — something that the international community banned in 1986,” he added.
Shortly before leaving office, President Clinton deferred a decision on sanctions to the new administration. Tensions later eased when Japan agreed to look into nonlethal research methods.
Japan’s latest move is the first significant whaling test for the Bush administration, and it’s not known if it is ready to go as far as the Clinton administration was prepared to act just as its term ended.
Whaling observers will be watching the Bush administration statements closely in the weeks leading up to the May meeting for any sign of a policy direction.
Japan, which is hosting the upcoming annual IWC meeting in the whaling village of Shimonoseki, said it would make a final decision after listening to opinions voiced at the meeting.
The World Wildlife Fund’s vice president, Richard Mott, accused Japan of acting “without any scientific assurance that the North Pacific whale populations can survive the increased take.
“Such actions,” he said in a statement, “are politically divisive and an affront to sound science.”

ABOUT MINKES, SEIS



The World Wildlife Fund estimates that as few as 8,000 sei whales might be left in the North Pacific. Japan said its spottings indicate there are 100,000 sei worldwide, 28,000 of them in the North Pacific.
The conservation group said that a reliable estimate is difficult because the seis, which grow as long as 85 feet, are easily confused in the water with Bryde’s whales.
Sei whales were severely depleted by whaling before the moratorium went into effect, with more than 100,000 killed in the 1960s in the Southern Hemisphere and an unknown number taken in the north, the group added.
As for minke whales, they are not endangered as a species but the North Pacific population where the Japanese hunt is, the WWF said.
Japan also hunts near Antarctica for Bryde and sperm whales, which are not endangered.
The group added that it expects Japan to allot its new minke quota to small-scale whaling villages, not scientists.
“The Japanese government is attempting to prop up its whaling industry while it sets about dismantling the global moratorium,” Mott said. “But commercial whaling has historically proven impossible to police and should not now be resumed under the cynical guise of science.”

JAPAN’S POSITION
An official with Japan’s fisheries agency defended the plan, saying whales were threatening its fish catches.
“Whales are eating large amounts of fish at a time when Japan’s haul of fish has been decreasing,” Masayuki Komatsu said, noting that Japan’s fish catch has been halved to six million metric tons in the last 20 years.


“We want to do a survey on how much fish whales are eating,” he said.
“Fish populations are falling and there is a need to control whales,” Komatsu said, adding that initial plans called for the whaling to be conducted in the summer and autumn.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare countered by citing a U.N. report that found that 75 percent of the world’s fisheries are overexploited by humans overfishing. “Whales are not the culprits,” the activist group said in a statement.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.