Scientists oppose Japanese plans to kill more whales

Professor Scott Baker, seen with a catalogue of humpback whale flukes, opposes Japanese plans to kill more whales. File picture / Amos Chapple

New Zealand scientists are joining an international clamour of condemnation against Japanese plans to kill more whales in the name of science.

Japan has asked the International Whaling Commission to approve plans to extend its Antarctic whaling programme in the Ross Sea to kill 80 each of humpback and fin whales and increase the number of minke whales killed from 440 to 850.

The move has met with strong opposition from the Australian and New Zealand governments.

Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Auckland's Faculty of Science Scott Baker, who will be attending the International Whaling Commission Scientific Committee meeting in Korea in June, said today Japan would have a fight on its hands.

"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," he said.

"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."

Phil Clapham, from the United States National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle, said Japan's scientific whaling programme had been widely criticised as a cover for a growing commercial hunt.

"The quality of the scientific research is extremely poor despite 16 years of operation and thousands of whales killed.

"Japan's research exists for one purpose only -- to 'prove' -- no matter what the data actually say, that whales eat too much fish and are thus in competition with Japanese fisheries.

"This isn't the case and is not even relevant in the Antarctic, where whales eat krill," Dr Clapham said.

- NZPA