japanese fisheries ministry

With financial support from Greenpeace, humpback whales have been tagged by the Cook Islands Whale Research and Opération Cétacés. The satellite tagging, skin biopsies and photo identification has already provided a huge amount of information about the migration patterns of threatened humpback populations. The "scientific whaling" carried out by the Japanese government does not address the most important needs identified by the International Whaling Commission, and can not be seen as justifiable. This year their quote includes 50 humpback whales.

A new poll released today shows that the number of Japanese who don't support whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary is growing - the 69% figure is a slight increase on the number found by a similar poll last year. Perhaps surprisingly, the Greenpeace commissioned poll showed that 87% were unaware that their tax money was being used to subsidise the whaling operation.