TOKYO, May 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Mr. Masayuki Komatsu, Japan's Alternate Commissioner to the IWC said today, "Emotionally based criticism and political interference related to Japan's whale research program may serve to satisfy certain extremist environmental groups but such actions against a perfectly legal and scientifically sound program are inappropriate. The research program must be addressed from a scientific perspective." Mr. Komatsu made these comments in response to criticism of Japan's whale research program from the U.S. Department of State and from Australia's Minister of Environment.

Japan's whale research vessels left port last week to begin the second year of a two-year research feasibility study in the northwestern Pacific. Dr. Seiji Ohsumi, Director General of the Institute of Cetacean Research that conducts the research authorized by the Government of Japan under Article VIII of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, said "The priority for our research in the north Pacific is to study the consumption of fish by whales in relation to the fisheries that provide food for humans."

"This is exactly the kind of research that the Committee on Fisheries of The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recommended at its meeting in February of this year" said Dr. Ohsumi. 

Dr. Ohsumi explained that the research involves both lethal and non-lethal sampling and that a maximum of 100 minke whales, 50 Bryde's whales and 10 sperm whales will be sampled. "These three whale species in the North Pacific are abundant and our small research take poses no threat or risk to these populations," Dr. Ohsumi said.

Dr. Ohsumi further explained that "Cetacean/fisheries interactions have become a major issue worldwide. It is an important issue in the context of world food security since we have estimated that cetaceans consume 3 to 5 times the amount of marine resources harvested for human consumption. In the waters around Japan we have a situation of declining catches in certain fisheries while at the same time the sampling from our research program reveals that minke whales are eating at least 10 species of fish including Japanese anchovy, Pacific saury, walleye Pollock and other commercially important species."

"Greenpeace and others have criticized this research as using a loop-hole in the Convention or as commercial whaling in disguise but these comments are simply rhetoric and misinformation for their own fundraising purposes. The fact is that the IWC Scientific Committee has commended Japan's whale research programs and noted that they are providing valuable information," Mr. Komatsu said.

Mr. Komatsu also explained, "the fact that the whale meat is sold on the market is because the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling requires that the by-products of research be processed so that valuable resources are not wasted. Income derived from the sale of the meat is used to partially offset the costs of research."

"Accusations that this is commercial whaling in disguise are simply false and ignore the valuable scientific contributions of the research," he said. 

The results from the research will be submitted to the IWC's Scientific Committee. For further information, visit http://www.whalesci.org/ and http://www.icrwhale.org/.

SOURCE: The Far Seas Fisheries Division of Japan's Fisheries Agency

WEB SITE: http://www.whalesci.org/ (in English)

WEB SITE: http://www.icrwhale.org/ (in Japanese)

CO: Far Seas Fisheries Division of Japan's Fisheries Agency; Institute of Cetacean Research