TOKYO - Japanese whalers in a small fishing town near Tokyo celebrated their first catch of the season and cut up the harvest in a demonstration to promote their fading tradition.The season for the Baird's beaked whale, or "tsuchi kujira" in Japanese, opened at Wada Port just ahead of this year's International Whaling Commission meeting.Australia and New Zealand are expected to try to persuade the IWC to ban killing whales for scientific studies, threatening Japan's annual hunt near the Antarctic that has sparked violent confrontations with environmental activists.The hunt for whales off Wada is separate from the controversial, larger scientific hunt — but it underscores Japan's argument that the centuries-old whaling tradition is still part of its culture.In a highly stylized ritual, whalers sprinkled rice wine over the first whale — measuring 11 yards (10 meters) long and weighing 11 tons (10 metric tons) — to pray for the safe hunting season. They peeled off the whale's thick, black skin with a special saw, chopped its head off to drain blood into a gutter, then cut the hefty animal into thousands of brick-size chunks of meat for the morning market.Hunting the Baird's beaked whale in the Japanese waters is not restricted by the IWC and is managed by Japan's Fisheries Agency. Officials in the town of Minamiboso, which oversees the Wada region, said they plan to catch up to 26 of the whales during the season, which ends Aug. 31.The number is negligible compared to Japan's hunts in Antarctica and the northwestern Pacific Ocean, which are allowed under international rules as a scientific program despite a 1986 ban on commercial whaling. Whale meat not used for study is sold for consumption, which critics say is the real reason for the hunt.
TOKYO - Japanese whalers in a small fishing town near Tokyo celebrated their first catch of the season and cut up the harvest in a demonstration to promote their fading tradition.
The season for the Baird's beaked whale, or "tsuchi kujira" in Japanese, opened at Wada Port just ahead of this year's International Whaling Commission meeting.
Australia and New Zealand are expected to try to persuade the IWC to ban killing whales for scientific studies, threatening Japan's annual hunt near the Antarctic that has sparked violent confrontations with environmental activists.
The hunt for whales off Wada is separate from the controversial, larger scientific hunt — but it underscores Japan's argument that the centuries-old whaling tradition is still part of its culture.
In a highly stylized ritual, whalers sprinkled rice wine over the first whale — measuring 11 yards (10 meters) long and weighing 11 tons (10 metric tons) — to pray for the safe hunting season. They peeled off the whale's thick, black skin with a special saw, chopped its head off to drain blood into a gutter, then cut the hefty animal into thousands of brick-size chunks of meat for the morning market.
Hunting the Baird's beaked whale in the Japanese waters is not restricted by the IWC and is managed by Japan's Fisheries Agency. Officials in the town of Minamiboso, which oversees the Wada region, said they plan to catch up to 26 of the whales during the season, which ends Aug. 31.
The number is negligible compared to Japan's hunts in Antarctica and the northwestern Pacific Ocean, which are allowed under international rules as a scientific program despite a 1986 ban on commercial whaling. Whale meat not used for study is sold for consumption, which critics say is the real reason for the hunt.