Originally Posted by
Sdigit
Agree 100%
I'd agree to but then we'd both be wrong? what's it all about - why do they want to kill whales?
whaling moratorium would be followed by a wave of demand for whale meat.
It will be encouraged by evidence that, since the St Kitts vote, public insouciance appears to have given way to a newfound enthusiasm for whaling: according to a survey in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper in June, about three-quarters of people support a return to limited commercial whaling. But whether the Japanese still have the stomach for whale meat is another matter. Younger Japanese are far more likely to eat a hamburger than a whale steak – forty times more likely, in fact. Whale-meat consumption had started to drop before the IWC ban came into effect in 1986; now, only about 1% of Japan’s 127 million people say they eat it regularly. A 2002 survey by the Asahi Shimbun newspaper found that only 4% of respondents ate whale meat “sometimes”, and 9% ate it “infrequently”. By contrast, 86% said they had never eaten it, or had stopped doing so in childhood.
Earlier this year the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society in Britain caused a furore when it revealed that a Japanese firm was turning unwanted whale meat into pet food. And in one of the few Japanese-language broadsides against whaling, Junko Sakuma, an environmental journalist, pointed out that stockpiles of whale meat had continued to rise since the late 1980s, despite falling prices. “The only time one hears news of whale meat selling out is when it is given away for free in whale soup at some event,” she wrote in a widely read study. “Despite this, there are plans to substantially increase production. Really? Will the meat actually sell?” Sakuma estimates that Japan’s whale-meat inventory from research hunts could reach 8600 tons from 2008 onwards, which is almost double the current level.
Japanese officials acknowledge that the shrinking domestic market for whale meat has dented the whaling industry’s commercial prospects. “I agree that even if we resume commercial whaling, it’s not going to produce a lot of money,” Suzuki says. So, having seen consumption plummet among adults, the government is directing its efforts at a new generation of potential whale-eaters. In May last year the Institute for Cetacean Research launched Geishoku Lab, a distribution company that aims to sell 1000 tonnes of whale meat to schools, hospitals and family-friendly restaurants a year, in a desperate attempt to reduce the existing stockpile of meat. In 2005 pupils at 270 schools in Wakayama Prefecture found child-friendly whale dishes on the school menu, including whale-meatballs, whale-burgers and spaghetti bolognaise (with whale meat). Colourful pamphlets distributed to schools describe whaling as part of Japan’s national heritage. “Is it OK to eat whale meat?” the pamphlet asks, with the sensibilities of picky ten-year-olds clearly in mind. “Of course it is,” comes the answer.
The government-sanctioned feeding of whale meat to schoolchildren is an act of desperation, argues Nanami Kurasawa, director-general of the Dolphin and Whale Action Network, one of a handful of small anti-whaling organisations in Japan. “Young people don’t want to eat whale meat because they think it’s tough and smelly,” she says.