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  PlanetArk 15 Feb 06
Whale Meat Returns to Japan School Menus - Report

BBC 10 Feb 06
Whale meat 'made into dog food'

PlanetSave 9 Feb 06
Japan-Whale For Sale
Written by Hiroko Tabuchi

TOKYO (AP) -- Japan has enticed children with whale burger school lunches, sung the praises of the red meat in colorful pamphlets, and declared whale hunting "a national heritage.'

But Tokyo has been caught in a striking dilemma: by rapidly expanding its much-criticized whaling program, Japan now kills more of the mammals than its consumers care to eat.

The result is an unprecedented whale glut. Prices -- once delicacy-high -- are plunging, inventories are bursting, and promoters are scrambling to find new ways to get Japanese to eat their whale.

"I have to admit prospects for whale demand don't look good at the moment," said Kunitada Ito, a merchant at Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market. His company, Toshoku, has slashed whale meat prices by 25 percent, but its freezers are still stacked with it.

Toshoku's plight is not unique. Some 1,035 tons of the meat hit the market in Japan last year, a 65 percent increase from 1995, the Fisheries Agency says. And sluggish demand means inventories have almost doubled in five years to 2,704 tons in 2004. In the same five-year period, the average price of whale plunged almost 30 percent, to 2,560 yen (US$21.60; euro18.08) a kilogram (2.2 pounds) in 2004.

But the glut hasn't stopped the harpoon guns. Tokyo plans to kill -- under a research program -- some 1,070 minke whales in 2006, over 400 more than last year and more than double the number it hunted a decade ago. Japan will also hunt 10 fin whales, and a total of 160 Bryde's, sei and sperm whales, fisheries official Kenji Masuda said.

The International Whaling Commission banned commercial whaling in 1986 but approved limited hunts for research purposes a year later.

Opponents have called Japan's hunts merely a way for it to dodge the ban. Tokyo, however, says its program is needed to establish reliable information on whale populations and habits -- data that Japan says can only be gleaned by killing the animals.

The government, which distributes the meat, and uses profits to fund further research, is scrambling to promote whale-eating and secure new distribution channels.

"Is it OK to eat whale meat? Of course it is," reads a public relations pamphlet, titled "Delicious Whales," distributed by the government-affiliated Japan Whaling Association. "Even if we capture 2,000 whales a year for 100 years, it's OK because whale numbers are growing," the pamphlet says.

But the association acknowledges whale is a hard sell. The meat was considered a rich source of protein in the lean years after defeat in World War II, but people moved on to other meats -- notably beef -- as they became more affluent.

Some local governments have started to tackle the challenge by promoting whale meat in school lunches. Wakayama, a prefecture with a strong whale-hunting tradition some 450 kilometers (280 miles) southwest of Tokyo, has been aggressive in getting youngsters to indulge, introducing whale meals at 270 public schools in 2005.

Nutritionists have developed child-friendly whale dishes, including whale meatballs, hamburgers and whale spaghetti Bolognese, said Tetsuji Sawada of Wakayama's education board.

But it may take a long time to change consumer habits. Young diners at a Hana No Mai restaurant in Tokyo -- one of several low-cost chains adding the increasingly cheap meat to their menus -- turned their noses up at the blubber Wednesday night.

"To put it simply, whale meat tastes horrible," said Kosuke Nakamura, 30. Younger people were put off by the tough, pungent meat, while it brought back memories of postwar poverty for older generations, he said.

While few Japanese voice environmental concerns over whaling, young people like Nakamura say it has brought the country a lot of unfavorable publicity. "Whaling's so bad for Japan's image. I don't know why we still hunt," Nakamura said.

Chimney Co., which runs the Hana No Mai eateries, acknowledged customers were wary of the new whale dishes, introduced in November. Still, officials say Hana No Mai will continue to carry whale meat.

A trader at one of Tsukiji market's biggest wholesalers, Daito Gyorui Co., was equally optimistic. "The fall in prices is a good thing because it will make whale meat more accessible," Yoshiaki Kochi said. "Japanese will never forget the taste of whale. It's part of our culture. It's in our DNA."

BBC 10 Feb 06
Whale meat 'made into dog food'

Meat from whales caught under Japan's "research" programme is so abundant that it is being sold as pet food, according to a UK conservation group.

Thousands of tonnes of whale meat has been stockpiled as more animals are killed each year, says the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS).

The Japanese government has attempted to sell the whale meat to schools but the price has continued to fall.

A company is selling meat on the web as "healthy and safe natural" dog food. "A quiet whale meat boom is starting," says the website hakudai.com. "The number of pet-owners who care about their animals' health are growing, recognising the nutritious value of whale meat," it adds. "Now the demand and the sales are soaring."

Nutritious and delicious

The website describes whale meat as "organic" and fished "freshly out of the water".

Mark Simmonds, director of science at WDCS, said: "Whaling is a cruel activity and the fact that Japan is killing these amazing animals to produce dog food is shocking. "We have heard many arguments from Japan over the years about why whaling is necessary to them but they have never stated that they needed to kill whales to feed their dogs."

A global moratorium on commercial whaling has been in place since the 1980s, but hunting for scientific research is permitted under the rules of the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

The hunting is condemned by most conservation groups on the grounds that it is inhumane, unnecessary and may harm fragile populations.

Japan and Iceland run scientific programmes, while Norway lodged a formal objection to the moratorium and maintains an openly commercial operation. A number of indigenous peoples are also allowed to hunt under tight restrictions.

Expanding the kill

The sheer volume of Japan's operations makes it the principal target for the wrath of conservation groups.

In the current hunting season, it launched a programme called JARPA-2 which doubles its annual minke whale catch from Antarctic waters. JARPA-2 will remove 935 minkes and 10 fin whales each year; while its other research programme JARPN takes 100 sei whales, 100 minkes, 50 Bryde's whales and five sperm whales annually from the north Pacific.

The IWC obliges countries practising scientific whaling to process what they catch, and the meat from Japan's programmes has always found its way into restaurants. Last year, it initiated a scheme to distribute whale meat to schools, and a fast-food chain began selling whale burgers.

But the latest news suggests demand from Japan's human population is running some way behind the recently expanded supply. WCDS quotes research showing that the price of meat from Bryde's whales has halved over the last five years, with other species falling as well.

Protest for survival

Most whale species are at risk of extinction, and last year 63 members of the IWC's Scientific Committee condemned the JARPA expansion.

"With the new proposal, Japan will increase its annual take... to levels approaching the annual commercial quotas for Antarctic minke whales that were in place prior to the moratorium," they declared.

In January a group of 17 countries, including the UK, mounted a formal diplomatic protest. "The UK is totally opposed to any activity that undermines the present moratorium on commercial whaling," said Britain's fisheries minister Ben Bradshaw at the time. "We urge Japan to reconsider its position and end this unjustified and unnecessary slaughter which is regarded by many countries and their public as a means to bypass the IWC moratorium."

Japan maintains that hunting is part of its cultural heritage, which other nations have no right to condemn.

PlanetArk 15 Feb 06
Whale Meat Returns to Japan School Menus - Report

JAPAN: February 15, 2006 TOKYO - Whale meat is back on the menu in a growing number of Japanese elementary and junior high schools, Kyodo news service reported on Tuesday.

The board of education in Wakayama prefecture in western Japan, an area known as the birthplace of organised whaling in the country, is promoting the drive to put whale on school menus. The board provided some 1,657 kilograms of whale meat for more than 100 elementary and junior high schools in Kyoto, Osaka and Nara prefectures and Tokyo in January of this year alone, Kyodo said, citing local officials. The amount for January was about double the amount for all of 2005.

"We want (schoolchildren) to know Japan's traditional dietary culture through whale meat which was popular in the past," it quoted a board of education official as saying.

Japan abandoned commercial whaling in 1986, in line with an international moratorium, but began catching whales again the following year for what it calls scientific research.

The meat of minke whale from Japan's research whaling is used to make dishes such as deep-fried whale seasoned with soy sauce, Kyodo said.

The British-based charity the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society said last week that Japan's stockpile of whale meat stood at 4,800 tonnes last year compared with 673 tonnes in March 1998, and that this year it had doubled its hunt of minke whales as well as adding humpback and fin whales to the tally. It estimated that this could add a further 1,700 tonnes of whale meat to already bursting warehouses.
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