[st01en_lox]

Asia
Apr 15, 2010

Illegal whale meat trade in Asia

GRANTS PASS (Oregon) - DNA testing of whale meat from a restaurant in Seoul, South Korea, indicates that some of it came from Japan, scientists said on Wednesday, offering evidence of an illegal international trade in whale meat from Japan's scientific whaling programme. Scientists from Oregon State University's Hatfield Marine Science Centre in Newport performed the tests as part of a project monitoring sources of whale meat offered for sale since 1993.

The peer-reviewed study appeared in Wednesday's edition of the journal Biology Letters. The study comes as the International Whaling Commission is considering legitimising limited commercial whaling as a way of controlling it. Environmentalists fear that could open the door to more illegal trade. Japan's annual whale hunt is allowed by the commission as a scientific program, but opponents call it a cover for commercial whaling, which has been banned since 1986. Japan hunts hundreds of mostly minke whales, which are not an endangered species. Whale meat not used for study is sold for consumption in Japan, but international sales are banned.

The South Pacific Whale Research Consortium in New Zealand estimates 3,000 whales are killed for their meat each year. 'Since the international moratorium, it has been assumed that there is no international trade in whale products,' said Scott Baker, associate director of OSU's Marine Mammal Institute and lead author of the study, in a written statement. 'But when products from the same whale are sold in Japan in 2007 and in Korea in 2009, it suggests that international trade, though illegal, is still an issue.' -- AP

[nvmrfgopyy]

There is just one solution, economic sanction against Japan for 5 at least years to show example to the rest of the world.