Japan: Ship fire won't stop future whale hunts

[Barrett808]

A DEADLY fire that hobbled the mothership of Japan's whaling fleet in the Antarctic and could cut short this year's hunt posed no threat to the environment and will not lead Japan to call off future kills, a senior whaling official said yesterday.

Tokyo and the environmental group Greenpeace, meanwhile, continued to exchange a heated barrage of accusations over the accident.

The fire aboard the Nisshin Maru two weeks ago killed one crew member and left the vessel unable to sail under its own power until Saturday. It also prompted strong protests from the New Zealand government and from Greenpeace over potential oil and chemical spills or damage to penguin colonies.

Much of the damage from the fire has been repaired, however, and Tokyo is now considering whether to continue the season's hunt, said Hideki Moronuki, chief of the whaling section at the Fisheries Agency.

"We must decide soon whether to continue or not," he said, adding that the hunt had been scheduled to go through the end of March with the fleet returning to Japan in mid-April. It had a quota of around 900 whales, but Moronuki said he could not comment on how many whales had already been killed.

(more)

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2007/200702/20070228/article_307376.htm

[judaspriestess]

1. why is there a quota if the whales are being slaughtered

for "research"? shouldn't one be enough? SHAME on them.

[Barrett808]

2. Research certainly wouldn't require an industrial-scale operation

The Nisshin Maru is a whale-meat processing factory. Research seldom requires factories.