Japanese whalers set out to kill 260 whales for ‘scientific research’

[XemaSab]

A pair of Japanese whaling vessels left Friday for the northwestern Pacific aiming to catch 260 whales for “scientific research”, a fisheries ministry official said.

The Yushin Maru and Yushin Maru No. 2 departed from Shimonoseki port in Yamaguchi, western Japan, to join the mother vessel Nisshin Maru, which has already set sail, the official said.

The fleet is scheduled to catch around 260 of the mammals, including 100 minke whales and 10 sperm whales, between now and early August, the official said.

Commercial whaling is banned under an international treaty but Japan has since 1987 used a loophole to carry out “lethal research” in the name of science.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/05/18/japanese-whalers-set-out-to-kill-260-whales-for-scientific-research/

[Esse Quam Videri]

1. MFer's

In a just world, the whales would be contaminated with radiation from Fukushima and when "taken for scientific research" would spread the radiation to the whalers and their "research vessels".

[joshcryer]

3. The mercury in whale / dolphin meat will probably affect more Japanese...

...than the radiation from Fukushima as it is.

[joshcryer]

2. A shameful culture.

[roody]

4. Where is Sea Shepherd?

[Bill219]

5. Paul Watson was recently arrested.

He was arrested on a warrant in Germany for an incident that had happened in Costa Rica in 2002. The German court has granted bail and he is supposed to be released on Monday.

[Rhiannon12866]

6. Damn! I had hoped we'd heard the last of this...

Why?! It's not the 1800s...

[Nihil]

7. Only in some countries ...

> Why?! It's not the 1800s...

In some places it's worse than the 1800s as at least in those times they
didn't have the sonar to locate whales, the firearms to extend their range
or the sheer industrialised power of the modern whale slaughtering fleet.

This ongoing sham of "research" is just so much bullshit.