The U.S. scientists have refuted Japan's allegation that the
country's hunt for some species of whale is purely for scientific
purposes, comparing the belief to that of "the sun rises in the
west", the Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday.
The Japanese whalers have announced its aim to harpoon, over the
next several months, 935 minke whales, 50 fin whales and 50
humpback whales.
It's the first legal hunt of endangered humpbacks since an
international moratorium was put in place in 1963.
Anyone who believes the expedition is purely for science, as
Japan contends, or that humpback whales need to be killed to
measure pregnancy rates, might be led to believe that the sun rises
in the west, the U.S. scientists said.
Alisa Schulman-Janiger, a researcher with the American Cetacean
Society, refuted the argument that the killing was aimed at
measuring whale pregnancy rates.
"Only 50 could hugely impact a small breeding population" of any
of the many groups of humpbacks that migrate to the killing area,
Schulman-Janiger said.
Other critics said the argument for Japan's expedition is merely
a ploy to skirt the international moratorium placed on all
commercial whaling in 1986 but which allows hunts that serve a
scientific purpose.
Japanese whalers sail through the same loophole every year,
returning with 50-ton lab specimens that also become table fare for
a nation that for generations has savored it, the paper said.
(Xinhua News Agency December 2, 2007)
