Return-Path: <WHE_WILLIAM@flo.org> Received: from flo.org by VMSVAX.SIMMONS.EDU (MX V3.1C) with SMTP; Mon, 23 May 1994 09:25:06 EDT Date: Mon, 23 May 1994 9:28:47 -0400 (EDT) From: WHE_WILLIAM@flo.org To: whalenet@vmsvax.simmons.edu Message-ID: <940523092847.1c039@flo.org> Subject: DNA & Pirate whaling From: SMTP%"MARMAM@UVVM.BITNET" 22-MAY-1994 22:42:11.79 To: WHE_WILLIAM CC: Subj: Japanese Whale Meat Sources. Date: Sun, 22 May 1994 23:30:09 BST Reply-To: Marine Mammals Research and Conservation Discussion <MARMAM@UVVM.BITNET> Sender: Marine Mammals Research and Conservation Discussion <MARMAM@UVVM.BITNET> Comments: Warning -- original Sender: tag was rbaird@SOL.UVIC.CA From: Richard McLanaghan <ifaw@gn.apc.org> Subject: Japanese Whale Meat Sources. To: Multiple recipients of list MARMAM <MARMAM@UVVM.BITNET> NEWS FROM THE IWC SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE MEETING POSTED BY THE INTERNATIONAL FUND FOR ANIMAL WELFARE WHERE DOES JAPAN'S WHALE MEAT COME FROM? Two U.S. researchers have found that whale meat on sale in Japan's supermarkets originates in the Antarctic, the North Atlantic and the North Pacific. In a report presented to the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), meeting in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Professor Scott Baker - now at the University of Auckland, New Zealand - and Dr Steve Palumbi of the University of Hawaii, give evidence that samples of skin, blubber and meat they purchased throughout the main island of Japan came from humpback whales, fin whales, as well as from minke whales as they expected. Using modern methods of DNA analysis - as now used widely in crime detection and technically called 'mitochrondial DNA sequencing' - the researchers were able to compare samples they purchased with 'type' specimens of various species from many locations, held in laboratories worldwide.Their studies were funded and otherwise supported by Earthtrust (a private campaigning group based in Hawaii) and the U.S. National Science Foundation. Throughout the current legal pause in commercial whaling the Japanese industry has been encouraged by the Government to kill hundreds of minke whales every year as scientific 'samples'. Under IWC rules these samples must not be 'wasted', so the meat is auctioned in Tokyo as soon as the factory ship returns to base in the each spring. But Baker and Palumbi found that of the samples they identified as from minke whales, eight came from the Antarctic but the ninth was from the North Atlantic. North Atlantic minke whales are caught legally by Greenlanders under special 'aboriginal subsistence' whaling rules but products from them are only supposed to be consumed locally. Norway has also in 1993 begun 'outlaw' whaling under a loophole in the international agreement that created the IWC; before that Norway's continuing operations were limited to 'scientific sampling'. The Norwegian Government now bans export, but dealers were last year caught trying to smuggle whale meat out by air, from Oslo to Seoul, it is thought en route to Japan. It is eight years since whalers in Iceland legally killed minke whales and unlikely that the frozen whale sashimi now being sold in Japan could be that old. Of the fin whale samples one appeared to be from the North Atlantic but one or more of the other three might have come from elsewhere. Some fin whales are legally killed for 'subsistence' by Greenlanders, but 'scientific' whaling by Iceland for fin whales continued untilI 1989; half of that production was allowed for export to the Japanese market. Baker and Palumbi report that the single sample they identified as from a humpback was from the North Pacific populations of this species. There has been no legal hunting of humpbacks in the Pacific since the 1960s. Interviewed in Puerto Vallarta Dr Baker said: "It was hard for us to determine the legality or illegality of these commodities because of the complete lack of commercial labelling system giving the species, the processing date and the production location. Not only is such a system needed while any whaling continues, it is also essential to establish an internationally controlled and accessible archive of tissue specimens from every whale killed, for whatever purpose and by whatever means, including those accidentally drowned in fishing gear, the meat from which reaches the markets of Japan, South Korea and elsewhere. A water-tight international inspection scheme for any future whaling will be one of the main topics of discussion at the meeting of the IWC. Revelations by the Russian Government about wholesale falsification of catch information by the Soviet authorities in the 1960s and 1970s have highlighted the ease with which whalers can cheat their way round all the IWC's rules. Said Dr Sidney Holt, Scientific Adviser to the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), who has attended IWC meetings since 1960: "We are totally opposed to commercial whaling on cruelty grounds. But there are other practical reasons for firm opposition. National and international authorities have never paid more than faint lip-service to seriously enforcing regulations. This industry is corrupt and out of control, and there are no signs of a change of attitude.We now have one big hope: that the Commission will this year agree to declare the entire Southern Ocean south of the "roaring forties", including Antarctic waters, as a sanctuary for whales. "Ten nations have formally proposed the sanctuary; it would protect 90% of the world's remaining whales - especially the only one that is still numerous, the small minke whale, which the Japanese whalers are desperate to get their hands on." Approval of the sanctuary as a binding decision requires a three-quarters majority vote. Although only one IWC member - Japan - wants to go commercial whaling their proposal is jeopardised by financial 'inducements' given by Japan to four Caribbean countries to join with the two whaling countries in blocking the proposal. For further information contact: Sidney Holt Vassili Papastavrou Marriott Hotel Puerto Vallarta