Whaling 'mothership' sets sail on first hunt in Japan. Why controversial whale hunting is crucial for the country

A Japanese delicacy called whale steak could soon appear on plates nationwide as the country launched a new whaling “mothership” on Tuesday, despite criticism from conservationists.

The mothership aims to hunt around 200 of the marine mammals this year.

The new Kangei Maru set off from Shimonoseki, the first new ship of its kind to sail from Japan in over 70 years. The ship can process and store whale meat on board.

Kangei Maru replaces a previous lead vessel, Nisshin Maru, which was retired last year.

The new ship to hunt whales

The roughly 9,300-tonne lead ship of Japan’s whaling flotilla set out on its inaugural hunt on Tuesday, marking the beginning of a new chapter for an industry that the government has long championed as essential to Japanese culture.

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According to Ryosuke Oba, manager of the restaurant, the ship, named the Kangei Maru, features “an in-house processing facility where the meat is processed before being refrigerated.”

“This ship is like a factory. That’s its most attractive feature,” he told AFP in the city of Shimonoseki, which has a long history of whaling.

By the end of the year, the 7.5 billion yen ($47.4 million) boat hopes to have caught about 200 whales.

“This is a new ship for a new era, symbolic of the new period of resumed commercial whaling,” announced Hideki Tokoro, president of the whaling company that built the Kangei Maru.

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“Fin whales can weigh up to 70 tonnes. The ship is equipped with a winch able to lift up a whale that big,” Tokoro said.

‘Part of Japanese identity’

Japan chases Bryde’s, minke, and sei whales and hopes to add fin whales — the second-largest animal species on Earth after blue whales — to the list.

According to the authorities, these species are “abundant” and it is sustainable to catch them in small numbers in Japan (294 were killed last year).

Notably, Japan was a member of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) before its moratorium on commercial whaling in 1985.

The country’s “scientific” whale hunts lasted for a few years, killing hundreds of whales in the North Pacific and Antarctic.

But in 2019, the nation withdrew from the IWC due to years of tensions that damaged its international reputation.

It resumed commercial whaling inside its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone.

Norway and Iceland are the only other countries to still conduct commercial whaling, while Indigenous groups also hunt in certain areas of the United States and elsewhere.

Whale meat was a major source of protein in the years following World War II, and whale hunting has been practiced in Japan for centuries.

However, the nation’s desire for whale flesh has drastically decreased in recent years, about 1,000 to 2,000 tonnes annually since 2019

Shintaro Maeda, the mayor of the city, is determined to reverse this trend.

“Our biggest goal is to boost demand for whale meat and raise public awareness of it,” he told AFP, describing whaling as “part of Japanese people’s identity.”

Food security argument

Besides scientific research, Tokyo says that eating whale meat is part of Japanese culture and an issue of “food security” in the resource-poor country.

“We can never ignore the possible threat of food security in the future caused by a shortage of food supply due to the ongoing increase of the global population and/or outbreak of pandemics on livestock,” a government “Frequently Asked Questions” webpage says.

“Whale meat and blubber are also often contaminated with high levels of toxins such as mercury and PCBs, making it unsafe for human consumption,” said Nicola Beynon at the Humane Society International Australia.

“Instead, keeping whales alive in the ocean can provide financial benefits, and therefore food security, to communities reliant on whale watching income, as well as contributing to productive oceans and healthy fish stocks thanks to their role as ecosystem engineers.”

Japan concedes there are elevated levels of mercury but says eating whale meat does “no harm to human health” – and in fact contains “good-quality proteins and unsaturated fatty acids.”

International criticism

Campaign organisations have denounced Japan’s plans, but there isn’t much of the global outrage from a decade ago, when environmentalists and whalers clashed in the Antarctic.

“Commercial whaling in the 21st century is unjustifiable. It’s an inhumane practice that exists purely for the profit of a few,” campaigners World Cetacean Alliance said this month.

Furthermore, the common minke and Bryde’s are classified as “least concern” on the Red List of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, whereas the sei is classified as “endangered” worldwide.

“Fin whales are listed as vulnerable by IUCN and the status of the population around Japan in the North Pacific is not known,” said Alexia Wellbelove from the Australian Marine Conservation Society.

“This is not a good basis on which to base a new whaling operation.”

Japan says it “intends to conduct periodic scientific (research) for the abundance estimates of target species, making it possible for… whaling to operate in a sustainable manner.”

Following the widespread commercial whaling era, whale stocks are still recovering.

Critics claim that the animals are threatened by a wide range of factors, such as pollution, entanglement in fishing nets, collisions with ships, noise pollution from the ocean, and warming waters.

“Scientists now tell us that whales play an important role as ecosystem servicers, adding to oceanic resilience, increasing abundant fish populations and helping to regulate the ocean carbon cycle which provides the lungs of the planet,” said Patrick Ramage from the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

“Japan’s commercial whaling slept walked into the 21st century. It’s time for it to end,” Ramage told AFP.

With inputs from AFP