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ScienceScope
CREDIT: INTERNATIONAL FUND FOR ANIMAL WELFARE Japan already kills 160 minke (above), Bryde's, and sperm whales annually in the North Pacific--and 400 minkes in the Antarctic--under a "research" exemption to a decades-old global ban on commercial whaling. It now wants to expand the Pacific hunt by 50 minke and 50 sei whales. The addition of the sei whales is particularly controversial, because the United States considers the species endangered. But the sei's status is based on outdated data, and fresh samples are needed to see if a growing population is competing with human fishers, argues Seiji Ohsumi, director general of the Institute of Cetacean Research in Tokyo. Scientists are split over the value of such research, and many argue that there are nonlethal means of collecting the necessary data (Science, 29 September 2000, p. 2264). And the World Wildlife Fund says Japan should not be allowed to expand whaling "under the cynical guise of science." The IWC's Scientific Committee will review the plan in May, and Ohsumi says his institute will consider any recommendations before the hunt begins in June.
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)
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