Japan's whale hunters fight the good fight

[dArKeR]

AP , TOKYO
Saturday, May 08, 2004,Page 5

In a cramped laboratory, a biologist with the Institute of Cetacean Research prepares plugs taken from whales' ears for age analysis. Scientists study their reproductive habits, food sources and the mercury levels in their tissue.

And then, of course, there's the guy who studies the best way to kill them.

For nearly two decades, as commercial whaling has largely vanished under a global ban, a half-dozen Japanese vessels have sailed off to the waters of Antarctica and the northwestern Pacific each year to hunt, kill and bring home samples of whales for an ongoing research program -- along with tonnes of meat for sale.

Possibly no other Japanese government-backed activity has so isolated Tokyo from its allies in the US and Europe, or so enraged environmental groups.

But at this institute, which serves as the heart of the operation, officials bristle at the suggestion they are doing anything wrong. Instead, they argue that they are fighting the good fight, and that the whaling ban is akin to Hindus forcing the world to stop eating beef, or Muslims banning pork.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/05/08/2003154603

Wrong Mafia Japan. A whale is a wild species while other animals are not wild and raised to be slaughtered, ripped open, have their flesh torn into small bite size pieces then sent to the mouths of flesh eating religious and non-religious people of the world.