A collision involving a Japanese security ship and anti-whaling activists on Wednesday has reignited debate over Tokyo's annual whaling campaign.
Japan continues to hunt whales despite pressure to stop from anti-whaling nations.
Here are some key facts:
- Japan aims to cull up to 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales over the Southern Hemisphere summer, using a loophole in a 1986 moratorium that allows whaling for research purposes. It also wants to expand hunting of whales in coastal waters at home.
- Critics say scientific whaling is commercial whaling in disguise. Internationally, the whaling moratorium is overseen by the 88-member International Whaling Commission (IWC).
- Minke whales are found in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. They are relatively common, but Australian government surveys suggest numbers have declined in past decades. One theory suggests minke whales may be moving further into sea ice, where whale research vessels cannot follow.
- Fin whales, also called razorback whales, are the second largest living animal after the blue whale and are classified as endangered.
- Whaling began in Japan in the 12th Century. Whale blubber is not regularly eaten today and keen consumers risk ingesting organochlorines that Greenpeace argues should classify the meat as toxic waste.
- Wholesale prices of whale meat in Japan have been falling since 1994, starting at just over $30kg and declining to $16.40kg in 2006. Japan's government has spent more than $165 million on its whaling industry since 1988.
- Japan's pro-whaling JWA says asking Japan to abandon its whaling culture would be like asking Australians to give up meat pies, or the British to jettison their fondness for fish and chips.
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Sources: The International Whaling Commission ( http://www.iwcoffice.org); Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation ( http://www.csiro.au); Greenpeace Worldwide ( www.greenpeace.org); Princeton University Online (wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webn)
