Japan sticks to its harpoons against US sanctions threat

Japan sticks to its harpoons against US sanctions threat
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

TOKYO, AUG 28: Japan defended its ``scientific whaling'' programme on Monday after the United States threatened trade sanctions against its continued slaughter of hundreds of the giant mammals.

Whaling for research purposes was guaranteed under an International Whaling Commission (IWC) agreement, a Japanese foreign ministry official insisted. ``There has been no contravention of the treaty,'' said the official, in charge of fisheries at the Ministry's Economic Affairs Bureau.

Commercial whaling was banned by the IWC in 1986. But Japan resumed killing minke whales just a year later for research and announced plans in April to kill 10 sperm whales and 50 Bryde's whales in the North Pacific, sparking a storm of protest.

Japan, which hunts 440 minke whales annually in the waters off Antarctica, has a long tradition of whaling and the meat is regarded here as a delicacy. Minke, sperm and Bryde's whales eat three to six times the amount of fish caught by fishermen around the world, the official said.

``Japanese fishermen catch saury and herring in the north-west Pacific. The latest research project is aimed at estimating the amount of saury and herring eaten by whales,'' he said. ``It is necessary to kill them and open their stomachs for that purpose.''

But Japan's claims of scientific interest for its whaling programme have met with incredulity from around the world. US Commerce Secretary Norman Mineta, in an article for Sunday's Washington Post newspaper, called Tokyo's justification ``preposterous''.

``Shortly, I will have to decide whether to ask the President to consider imposing trade measures against Japan,'' wrote Mineta, a Japanese-American. Sanctions were possible under a 1967-Fisheries Protection Act in the United States, he said in response to the planned Japanese slaughter of sperm and Bryde's whales.

In July, US President Bill Clinton sent a letter of protest against the new plan to Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori. Sperm and Bryde's whales are both protected by US endangered species laws.

The IWC adopted a non-binding resolution opposed by Japan at its annual convention in early July, calling for self-restraint on scientific research whaling. ``There were countries which supported the Japanese side,'' the Foreign Ministry official said, citing 19 votes for the resolution, 12 against and two abstentions.

Japan has been accused by New Zealand, Greenpeace and others of cheque-book diplomacy in seeking to sway smaller nation members of the IWC. It strongly denies linking aid to support for its whaling. The US Commerce Secretary said Japan was undermining the commercial whaling ban. ``This Japanese research hunt not only threatens whales that have been safe from harpoon guns since 1987, it threatens the worldwide ban on commercial whaling,'' Mineta warned. As the US election campaign gathers steam, the Clinton Administration finds itself under increased pressure to take effective steps against Japan or risk losing votes in the US environmental community.