- Penthrite Grenade Harpoon
If a Penthrite explosion within a whale's body was a guarantee
of instantaneous death or unconsciousness, as is often claimed by the
whaling industry, then why are the average times to death not less
than 10 seconds? Why is the proportion of whales killed instantaneously
never significantly greater than about half? Why does it continue to
be necessary for the Norwegian Minke whaling industry to employ a secondary
killing method? It is because the Penthrite grenade harpoon fails to
inflict a guaranteed fatality. Few though they are, the killing data
so far released by the Government of Norway prove that the Penthrite
grenade harpoon fails to kill instantaneously in the majority of cases,
just like the cold harpoon. During Norwegian commercial Minke whaling
between 1984 and 1986, 55.2 per cent of the whales were not killed
instantaneously; and during the 1994 Norwegian hunt the proportion
- the best achieved so far - was 44 per cent.
The harpooned whale which is not killed instantly suffers from the
pain inflicted by the penetration of the harpoon body, expanding claws,
forerunner (harpoon line) and shrapnel fragments; and the disruption
of tissues caused by the rapid expansion of gases during explosion.
However, consideration is rarely given to the effect on a still
conscious and struggling whale when it is winched in: the strain on
the line increases the stress on, and damage to, the wound area, which
must further increase the pain experienced by the whale.
A significant proportion of Penthrite grenade harpoon strikes kill
very slowly. In this respect, the Penthrite grenade harpoon is as inhumane
as any other harpoon. A great many potentially long and lingering deaths
are only curtailed by use of a secondary killing method; without which,
the times to death for many whales would extend into many tens of minutes
or several hours.
The difficulties of accurately determining time of death
or unconsciousness. It is likely that there are cases when harpooned
whales are declared dead or unconscious when in fact they are paralysed
and still fully conscious.
by Breach
Marine Protection UK
- Whale burger on menu at Japanese fast food chain 13:00 AEST Thu Jun
23 2005
Reuters
TOKYO - With Japan under fire for plans to expand its whaling programme,
a fast food chain is offering a new product aimed at using up stocks
from past hunts -- whale burger.
The 380 yen ($A4.50) slice of fried Minke whale in a bun went on sale
on Thursday at Lucky Pierrot, a restaurant chain in the port city of
Hakodate on Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido.
"The taste and texture are somewhere between beef and fish," said
chain manager Miku Oh. "People in Hakodate have a long history
of eating whale, so customers are looking forward to trying it."
Japan's plan to expand its scientific whale hunt to an annual catch
of 900 Minke whales were dealt a blow on Wednesday when the International
Whaling Commission passed a resolution at a meeting in South Korea
urging it to instead cut back on the catch.
"We are not going out to catch whales because we want to eat them,
we are just using up meat from whales that have been killed for experiments," Oh
said.
- Tokyo, Japan — If you wanted a census
of wild birds, would you get a slingshot and kill them to count them? This
is practically what the Government of Japan is proposing, yet again.
Wire reports reveal that a secret proposal from Japan's Fisheries
Agency sets a "scientific" quota of double the current
take of Minke whales. They also want to add endangered humpback and
fin whales. It's time for killing in the name of science to stop.
- Greenpeace - From Japan with love: a slap in the face. Japan's
government disguise whaling as "science"
- To kill them, whalers launch grenade-tipped spears that pierce
the whales' bodies, then detonate internally. But the first blast
often doesn't kill the poor whale, and whale hunters have to
finish the job -- minutes later -- with another grenade or by firing
rifles.
copyright Greenpeace
- Justice James Allsop said his decision was based on a Federal Government
submission which warned of diplomatic repercussions if the case was
allowed to be heard.
The decision means a resumption of whaling - including endangered
Humpback whales - is free to go ahead in a matter of weeks, and in
Australian waters.
The Humane Society International (HSI) applied to the court last
year to have a case heard which would seek to prosecute Japanese
whaling company Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha for whaling in Australian waters
near Antarctica. However, the judge agreed with a submission lodged
by Attorney-General Philip Ruddock against the case proceeding.
Mr Ruddock said the case would contravene international law because
Japan did not recognise Australia's sovereign claims.
The Federal Government argued it would prefer a diplomatic solution.
The decision confirms the Government has no power or no will to enforce
its environmental laws in Australian-claimed waters off Antarctica.
- The company kills around 440 Minke whales
inside Australia's Antarctic Territory each year and has slaughtered
whales within the sanctuary every summer since 1987.
Japan wants to broaden its whale kill to include humpback whales,
which travel up the Australian coast to breed. HSI was seeking permission
from the Federal Court to take legal action against the company to
have its whale hunting declared illegal.
Justice Allsop dismissed the application, claiming legal action
against the company could jeopardise Australia's national interests.
"The Australian Government has the view that the attempt to
enforce the EPBC Act [to stop the killing of whales] may upset the
diplomatic status quo ... and may be contrary to Australia's
long-term national interests," he said.
"It is sufficient for me to say that the submissions of the
Attorney-General appear to have great force." Mr Ruddock said
in his submission that the Government had no right to enforce its
laws on Japan because Japan did not recognise Australia's claim
of territorial sovereignty over the Australian Antarctic Territory.
- Humpbacks are preyed upon by humans and killer whales. These whales
have been hunted to near extinction, and only about 2,500 exist today.
- Fisher says that certain stocks of whales are endangered by the hunting.
For example, there are only 900 individuals left in the "J stock" of
Minke whales, which live in the North Pacific region. These are genetically
separate from the more common "O stock".
However, at certain times of the year, the J stock migrate and mix
with the O stock where they are then subject to hunting, as the IWC
sets scientific quotas by geographical area only.
Academic researchers are also unconvinced by Japan's use of
science as a justification for the hunt. Hal Whitehead, at Dalhousie
University in Halifax, Canada, told New Scientist print edition in
an interview this week: "I am a scientist, and I value my profession. 'Scientific
whaling' is like the prostitution of the profession: using the
name of science for a totally bogus purpose." (NewScientist.com)
- Iceland in the period 1950 - 1970 changed their territorial water
limits several times during the Icelandic Cod Wars. Eventually they
reached the current distance of 200 miles, to do so they changed their
laws and used their patrol boats to thwart the Royal Navy and the British
fishing fleet. Eventually they succeeded through the European courts
and saved the Icelandic Cod breeding grounds. I guess it is too much
to ask our typically weak Australian Government to defend its territorial
waters, they are too concerned with the dollar and offending our Japanese
neighbours, pity the Japanese don't reciprocate those concerns.
- The fact is whale meat can be purchased in Japanese shops as a special
treat for human consumption. If the Japanese now wish to catch humpbacks,
it is more likely they are satisfy the palate rather than any scientific
purpose. The IWC cannot be trusted to act in the whale’s best
interests.(Solomon Star)
- Developed nations that offer large sums to island nations for the
right to fish in their waters, usually have already decimated the fish
stocks in their own waters to the point where fishing there is no longer
commercially viable. For many Pacific nations like Kiribati, the income
received from the sale of fishing licenses to wealthier countries is
irresistible. However, accepting it is usually a grave error as the
real wealth (tied up in the catch and not the license fees) is exported
out of the host country and in the end benefits only an elite handful
of people. This pattern has occurred in so many small nations and has
been so clearly disastrous to their economies and fish stocks, that
we fear greatly for the future of the Kiribati.
At a recent Fisheries meeting in Japan (JARPN II-in August and September
2000) the Japanese Fisheries Agency gave delegates from all nations
written material and pictures depicting whales as serious food competitors
of squid and blue-fin tuna. The information was compiled by the Fisheries
Agency of the Government of Japan, and included photographs of the
stomach contents of a dead sperm whale, containing a large quantity
of squid.(Voyage of the Odyssey - The Politics of Whales)
- The IFAW Economic Report : From Whalers to Whale Watchers shows that
Australians are falling in love with whales it found that close to
two million people went whale watching in 2003. The IFAW report found
the whale watching industry had contributed more than $340 million
to the economy in 2003. In the 25 years since the ban on whaling, Australians
have embraced whale watching, recognising that whales are worth more
alive than dead.
The whale migration map which allows users to find out where in
Australian and pacific waters the whales are, where they go. Whales
are currently protected in Australian waters but once they leave
the safety of our coastal areas they still face dangers. When whales
travel south on their annual migration to Antarctica they face the
prospect of Japan’s annual whale hunt in the Southern Ocean.
Japan plans to expand this hunt by attempting to revoke the current
Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. (IFAW - Whale Watching in Australia)
- "Killing whales in Australian waters is an offense.
We hope HSI’s case in the Federal Court will embarrass the whaling
company and the Japanese government, and push the Australian government
into prosecuting the whaling themselves," said HSI’s Wildlife
and Habitat Program Manager Nicola Beynon.
The Australian Whale Sanctuary is in the Commonwealth marine area,
beyond the coastal waters of each state and territory. It includes
all of Australia's Exclusive Economic Zone extending to 200 nautical
miles (350 kilometers) from the coast, and includes the waters around
the Australian Antarctic Territory and Australia's external territories,
such as Christmas, Heard and Macdonald islands. (Note item
6 - Icelandic Cod War)
Under the law, there are penalties of up to $110,000 and/or
up to two years' imprisonment for illegally killing, injuring,
taking, trading, keeping, moving, interfering with or treating
a cetacean in the Australian Whale Sanctuary.
The International Whaling Commission imposed a moratorium on commercial
whaling in 1986. "Since 1987, in defiance of the moratorium,
Japan has dressed up its whale hunts as research. Citing a loophole
under the international convention, which allows for scientific whaling,
Japan claims the hunts are legal and kills approximately 440 Minke
whales every year in Antarctic waters," the HSI says.
In the last four years, HSI estimates nearly
a quarter of all the whales slaughtered in Japan’s Antarctic
research program have been killed in the Australian Whale Sanctuary. Ocean
Conserve
- IT IS rare for a cookery class to court political controversy, but
in Tokyo yesterday, the Women's Forum for Fish was doing just that,
teaching whale meat recipes as an international row over whale hunting
brewed.
About 50 mostly middle-aged Japanese were learning to prepare whale
meat in a class sponsored by the pro-whaling forum. As they fried
and boiled thick cuts of the chewy flesh, talk revolved around the
delicacy, and foreign opposition to it.
"There isn't a part of the whale that we Japanese don't
use. We even make soup out of its blood," said Yuriko Shiraishi,
the forum's head. "Foreigners need to understand that this
is part of our culture." (News.Scotsman.com)
- The population of sea lions, seals and otters in the north Pacific
Ocean has declined so catastrophically in recent years that scientists
fear for their continued survival, and the reasons why remain open
to fierce debate. Now, a team of scientists has come up with a creative
hypothesis that blames it all on human activities following World War
II.
Extensive whaling removed more than half a million great whales
from the north Pacific after the war, forcing a subtle change in
the dietary habits of the true lord of the ocean, the Killer Whale,
according to this new theory. With fewer baleen and sperm whales
to dine on, pods of Killer Whales that used to take out an occasional
great whale gradually turned to other marine animals, setting off
an ecological domino effect that has extended to the present. (ABC
News - How whale hunting changed the ocean)
- Whale hunting takes place in at least the following countries today,
some of which are members of the IWC while others are not: Canada,
the Commonwealth of Dominica, the Faroes, Greenland, Grenada, Indonesia,
Japan, Norway, the Philippines, Russia, St. Lucia, St .Vincent and
the Grenadines, and the USA.
The so-called "IWC whales" that are hunted are Bottlenose,
Bowhead, Bryde's, Gray, Fin, Humpback, Minke and Sperm whales.
The "non-IWC whales" hunted are Beluga, Narwhal, Baird's
Beaked, Pilot, Pygmy Killer and various dolphins and porpoises.(High
North Alliance - pro-whaling lobby)
- Humpback whales throughout much of the South Pacific have shown little
sign of recovery to their former abundance, despite claims to the contrary
by some Japanese scientists. Conservation Minister Chris Carter has
already indicated that New Zealand will fight the proposal on several
counts and other governments are also expected to challenge the proposal.
“Nearly 200,000 humpback whales and more than 700,000 fin
whales were killed in the Southern Hemisphere during the 20th century
reducing both populations to near extinction. Now, it seems Japan
plans to resume hunting of both species in defiance of the 1986 moratorium
on commercial whaling and the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary,” says
Dr Baker.(Scoop Independent News - Whales at risk again from Japanese
hunting)
- An Australian Associated Press report is saying that the AAT Research
ship "Aurora Australis" has found a catcher from the 5 vessel
Japanese whaling fleet inside the AAT Economic zone claimed by Australia.
The vessel was spotted 38 nautical miles inside the AAT zone by Prydz
Bay. The "Aurora Australis" has ordered the Japanese vessel
to leave the zone immediately. The Japanese reaction is not known at
this stage.(70South - Australia orders Japanese whalers out)
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