Japanese whale hunt

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Japan Shops a New, Vulnerable Species for Its Whale Hunt

(Newser) - Commercial whaling in Japan could soon expand to include a fourth species—one already considered vulnerable. Japan currently allows hunting of the Bryde's whale, minke whale, and endangered sei whale in the North Pacific. It's now considering adding a fourth eligible species: fin whales. The fin whale, up...

Iceland Yanks Its Whale Hunt
Iceland Yanks Its Whale Hunt
Jun 21, 2023 10:50 AM CDT

Iceland Yanks Its Whale Hunt

Suspends its annual hunt until the last 2 weeks of the season, in a likely death knell

(Newser) - Iceland is one of three nations left on the planet that still hunts whales commercially, and it looks like it may be bowing out of that small, controversial group on a humanitarian basis. As AFP reports, Reykjavik announced it's suspending the annual whaling season—which runs from mid-June to...

Japanese Vending Machines Now Dispensing Whale Meat

Conservationists are worried about the development

(Newser) - A Japanese whaling operator, after struggling for years to promote its products amid protests from conservationists, has found a new way to cultivate clientele and bolster sales: whale meat vending machines. The Kujira (Whale) Store, an unmanned outlet that recently opened in the port town of Yokohama near Tokyo, houses...

First Whales Caught as Japan Resumes Commercial Hunt

2 minke whales are taken, and more than 200 are expected to follow

(Newser) - Japanese whalers returned to port Monday with their first catch after resuming commercial whaling for the first time in 31 years, achieving the long-cherished goal of traditionalists despite slowing demand for the meat and changing views on conservation. A fleet of five boats left the northern Japanese port of Kushiro...

Hunters Kill 333 Whales in 'Research' Expedition

Japan says it is killing the animals legally as part of a scientific program; experts disagree

(Newser) - Japan says it killed 333 minke whales, including 122 pregnant females, at its controversial annual hunt last summer. The hunt is, as always, under fire for its lack of apparent connection to legitimate scientific research and for killing whales rather than taking a non-lethal survey (Japan says its aim is...

Japan Kills 333 Whales During Annual Hunt

Activists have long called for an end to the practice

(Newser) - Japan's annual Antarctic whale hunt killed 333 whales this year, the AFP reports. The five-ship whaling fleet set out in November and returned to port Friday with the minke whale carcasses. The country's Fisheries Agency says the mission was necessary for "research for the purpose of studying...

UN Court Puts Kibosh on Japan's Whale Hunt

Finds JARPA II is 'not scientific'

(Newser) - Australia 1, Japan 0: The UN's International Court of Justice today ruled that Japan's whaling program, which it has long claimed is for scientific purposes, is just a cloak for commercial whaling, the BBC reports, in a case that Australia brought about back in 2010. The 16-judge panel...

Activists Tangle With Japanese Whaler

Sea Shepherd up to its usual tricks; Japan not amused

(Newser) - It's whaling season in the Antarctic Ocean, which means the rotten-butter-wielding activists at Sea Shepherd were busy making life miserable for the Japanese whaler Yushin Maru No. 2 today. Activists hurled paint and butyric acid—found in the aforementioned rotten butter—at the ship, as well as ropes designed...

Japan: We Will Hunt Whales This Year

Activist group will again try to disrupt them in the Antarctic

(Newser) - It could be a nasty December in the Antarctic: Japan says it will go ahead with its annual whale hunt and promises to ramp up security to protects its boats from activists, reports AP . The leading activist group, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, promises to be back in full force....

Cove Oscar Winners Stage Sting at LA Sushi Joint
Cove Oscar Winners Stage Sting at LA Sushi Joint
hunting illegal whale meat
Mar 9, 2010 11:05 AM CST

Cove Oscar Winners Stage Sting at LA Sushi Joint

Filmmakers go undercover to find illegal whale meat

(Newser) - The makers of The Cove, the Oscar-winning documentary about dolphin killing in Japan, have aimed their cameras closer to home in a sting to expose illegal whale meat served at a California sushi joint. The operation began in October, when they heard rumors that the Hump, a Santa Monica restaurant,...

Activists Slime Whalers With Butter, Paintballs

Japanese worried projectiles could injure or kill someone

(Newser) - Conservationists chucked paintballs and rotten butter at Japanese whalers, while the whalers fired back with water canons in their latest pitched, if unconventional, naval battle in the Antarctic Ocean yesterday. No one was injured in the clash, the AP reports. Paintballs are a new weapon for the Sea Shepherd group,...

Activists Vow to Bust Boat-Destroying Whalers

Sea Shepherd donations are pouring in after sinking

(Newser) - The head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society says that if the Australian and New Zealand governments fail to arrest the Japanese whalers who sank the Ady Gil, he'll do it himself. Paul Watson—whose group has already filed piracy charges against the crew of the Shonan Maru and is...

Boat Destroyed, Whaling Activists Take to the Air

Whale war heats up after Sea Shepherd boat is destroyed

(Newser) - The anti-whaling group whose high-tech boat was destroyed by a Japanese whaler in Antarctic waters yesterday has continued to pursue their target by helicopter, and vowed to keep up the harassment. "We now have a real whale war on our hands," declared the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's leader,...

Aussies Face Protests Over Kangaroo Cull

Pro-whaling Japan pounces on neighbor's seeming hypocrisy

(Newser) - Australia is planning to cull 400 kangaroos on a military base, and Japan—oft-criticized by Australia for its whaling practices—is jumping at the opportunity to hail its neighbor as hypocritical, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. Not so, says Australia’s PM. The whaling issue is subject to "an...

Japanese 'Frankenwhale' Experiments Slammed

Scientists say whale research is bizarre, useless

(Newser) - Scientists have reviewed the research Japan uses to justify hunting whales, and they've concluded that it is mostly useless—and very weird, Sydney's Daily Telegraph reports.   Researchers tried to fertilize cow and pig eggs with whale sperm, and to create test-tube whales from frozen sperm.  "It's totally...

Activists Hurl 'Acid' at Whalers
Activists Hurl 'Acid' at Whalers
Mar 3, 2008 8:46 AM CST

Activists Hurl 'Acid' at Whalers

Action draws condemnation from Japan, Australia

(Newser) - In the latest clash between Japanese whalers and activists in Antarctic waters, members of a militant anti-whaling group threw bottles of a slick, foul-smelling rancid butter concoction onto the whaling fleet's flagship. Japanese officials said three sailors were injured when butyric acid, found in spoiled butter, splashed into their eyes,...

Whales Fall as Hunt Resumes
Whales Fall as Hunt Resumes
Feb 1, 2008 9:45 AM CST

Whales Fall as Hunt Resumes

With Greenpeace gone to refuel, fleet harpoons 5 more

(Newser) - Japanese whalers have resumed their hunt in Antarctic waters, killing at least five whales when protest ships pulled back to refuel, the Australian News Network reports. Witnesses reported seeing the whales harpooned in the Southern Ocean after ships from Greenpeace and another protest group withdrew. In Tokyo, the Australian foreign...

Aussies Demand Whalers Release Eco-Warriors

Australian goverment moves to free men from belly of whaling ship

(Newser) - An Australian customs ship is steaming on it way to pick up two protesters being held on board a Japanese whaling ship, where they were lashed to a railing, CNN reports. The activists were seized by the ship's crew Tuesday after they boarded to deliver a protest letter saying that...

Greenpeace Ship Scatters Japanese Whalers

Hunt for 1,000 whales disrupted in sea chase

(Newser) - The Greenpeace pursuit of Japanese whaling ships continued yesterday after a ship operated by the environmental group earlier chased down and scattered a fleet of six Japanese whaling vessels in the waters off Antarctica. The Japanese fleet plans to hunt down 1,000 whales in what operators call a "...

Risky Showdown Looms as Eco-Ships Near Whalers

High noon on high seas as rival vessels battle to save mammoth creatures

(Newser) - Fears of a deadly battle increased yesterday as a Greenpeace ship began to close in on a Japanese whaling fleet intending to kill 1,000 whales. Also steaming through the Southern Ocean off Antarctica was a far more militant "eco ship," planning to ram the whaling vessels. "...

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