JAPAN: Japan yesterday proposed hunting nearly 3,000 minke whales a year in the Antarctic, saying populations of the giant sea mammals in the southern oceans were healthy enough to sustain the losses.
Japan has long sought to overturn a 1986 ban on all commercial whaling. This latest proposal came at the International Whaling Commission's annual meeting in Italy, which, as in past years, has been dominated by the issue. "Minke whales are extremely abundant in the southern ocean," said Japan's commissioner to the IWC, Mr Minoru Morimoto. "The population will be able to fully sustain the proposed quota and at the same time maintain its current healthy abundance levels."
The proposal was expected to be rejected at the meeting in Sorrento, as it requires a three-quarters majority to pass. But it signalled Japan's determination to have the ban on commercial whaling overturned - and its intentions if the ban is ever lifted.
Minke whales are the smallest of the baleen whales at about 30 feet.
Japan is the world's prime consumer of whale meat.