Japan admits disaster funds to be used for whaling
- AFP
- December 08, 2011
JAPAN has confirmed it plans to use some of the public funds earmarked for quake and tsunami reconstruction to boost security for its controversial annual whale hunt.
Greenpeace alleged that Tokyo was siphoning money from disaster victims by spending an extra 2.28 billion yen ($A29 million) on beefed-up security for its whaling fleet. Environmental groups are expected to renew their battle with the Japanese ships soon.
Japan's whaling fleet left port yesterday for this season's annual hunt in Antarctica. The coastguard said earlier that it would deploy an unspecified number of guards to protect the ships from anti-whaling activists.
Fisheries Agency official Tatsuya Nakaoku said the extra security was designed to ensure safer hunts, and ultimately help coastal towns that are largely rely on whaling as they recover from the March 11 disasters.
"The government will support the reconstruction effort of a whaling town and nearby areas," he told AFP today.
"This program can help it reconstruct food-processing plants there... Many people in the area eat whale meat, too. They are waiting for Japan's commercial whaling to resume."
In February, Japan cut short 2010-2011 hunt by one month after bagging only one-fifth of its planned catch. It blamed interference from the US-based environmental group Sea Shepherd.
Last month, Japan passed a 12.1 trillion-yen extra budget, the third this year, to finance reconstruction and revive an economy that is still reeling from the impact of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
About 498.9 billion yen was earmarked for fisheries-related spending, including 2.28 billion yen for "stabilising whaling research".
"We will bolster measures against acts of sabotage by anti-whaling groups so as to stably carry out the Antarctic whaling research," the fisheries department said after the budget was passed.
Commercial whaling is banned under an international treaty but since 1987 Japan has used a loophole to carry out "lethal research" on the creatures in the name of science.
Japan says it is necessary to substantiate its view that there is a robust whale population in the world, but does not hide the fact that whale meat from this research ends up on dinner tables and in restaurants.
Anti-whaling nations and environmentalist groups routinely condemn the activity as a cover for commercial whaling.
Japan confirms tsunami and earthquake
disaster funds used for whaling
- AFP
- December 08, 2011
Use of Government Recovery Funds Stokes Japan Whaling Row
By Yoree Koh
As has become almost routine in recent years, Japan’s annual whale hunt that began this week has kicked off to swirling controversy.
- Institute of Cetacean Research/Associated Press
- Anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd’s ship the Bob Barker, right, and the Japanese whaling ship No. 3 Yushin Maru collide in the waters of Antarctica in February 2010.
But this year, onlookers are not only taking issue with the whaling expedition itself, but how extra government funding for the trip is being drawn from money intended to be used for reconstruction efforts from the March 11 disasters. The funds are from Japan’s own national budget, not charitable donations from overseas.The Fisheries Agency said it is channeling an additional Y2.28 billion, about $30 million, to support this year’s whale hunting mission, a chunk of which is earmarked to bolster the fleet’s defense against aggressive confrontations with the anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. The funds are a part of the Y498.9 billion that was allotted for the agency in Japan’s Y12 trillion third extra budget, passed last month to cover additional costs for rebuilding the northeast region torn apart by the barreling tsunami.About Y1.8 billion will be spent on “supporting whaling research” and the remaining Y480 million will go towards “safety measures against disturbing activity,” according to Shigeki Takaya, assistant director of international affairs at the Fisheries Agency. That will be on top of the Y700 million Mr. Takaya said the agency spends annually on efforts to ward off the group’s harassment.Mr. Takaya said an agency patrol boat will be dispatched to accompany the fleet. But he declined to comment on the specifics of the beefed up security measures because doing so may compromise their effectiveness.The agency has also once again requested the members of the Coast Guard to accompany the three-boat fleet, marking the third time the maritime officers will join the mission. The Coast Guard declined to comment on how many people have been dispatched and whether it varies from 2007 and 2010. Even so, the Coast Guard’s role as an enforcer is fairly limited. The guards are not permitted to take any action if the activists pester the Japanese whalers unless they attempt to board the ship in which case the guards have the authority to arrest them.The budget allocation revelation, first raised by Greenpeace, has stung other activist groups into protest. About 18 organizations signed a Dec. 1 statement released by Greenpeace Japan that called for the government to re-evaluate the budget’s use ahead of the convoy’s departure.The Fisheries Agency said on Thursday that supporting the expedition with reconstruction funds is appropriate, claiming that bringing back a full catch will help revive a whaling town devastated on March 11. The tsunami swallowed much of the small coastal village of Ayukawa, a district in Ishinomaki, Miyagi prefecture, the only whaling hub in the northeastern disaster zone. The massive wave destroyed the whale-processing facility and ports, dealing a blow to a business that had already been choking from increasingly depleted catches.Japan’s whaling mission has struggled to meet its quota due to dogged harassment from the Sea Shepherd Society, which has chased the fleet off course in the Southern Ocean and employed disruptive tactics like lobbing rotten butter and entangling the ship’s propellers in rope. The previous season’s trip was cut short, forced to turn back for the first time because of incessant aggravation from the environmental group. The fleet returned home failing to catch even a quarter of its targeted quota of 900 whales – the same number it seeks to catch this season.Japan has drawn international criticism for continuing whale hunting missions despite a 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling set by the International Whaling Commission. Japan has said it is conducting “whale research,” a crack in the ban that allows whales be caught for research purposes. While the Japanese whaling fleets depart for annual whaling hunts in the Southern Ocean in mid-November citing scientific research purposes, opponents say the real motive is to sell whale meat.“We chased them all the way to the tip of South America last season before they gave up so maybe they won’t run now that they have security boats,” Paul Watson, the head of the conversation group, told JRT by telephone on Thursday from the “Steve Irwin,” one of the Sea Shepherd vessels set to tail the Japanese whalers. “But that doesn’t mean that we won’t be there. If they try to load whales then we will be there. If that means collusions between the ships then so be it, because we’re not going to move.”Mr. Watson said the three Sea Shepherd boats, currently docked in Australia, planned to depart for the Antarctic waters Thursday afternoon. It expects to catch up with the Japanese whalers by the end of the month.
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