A single Japanese whaling vessel has caught 35 minke whales out of a quota of 60 off its northern island of Hokkaido. The hunt is a component of Japan’s so-called scientific whaling programme in the North Pacific (JARPN).

The Institute of Cetacean Research which oversees the hunt, conducts the research and sells the meat, blamed the shortfall on bad weather and low stocks of minke prey. However, the early conclusion of the hunt appears to lend further proof that Japan has far more whale meat than it needs. Earlier this year its whaling fleet killed 256 minke, sei, sperm and Bryde’s whales in the North Pacific in the main component of JARPN, but as the vessels departed, about 3,900 tons of whale meat remained in stockpiles - a 45 percent increase from the previous year and about twice as much as 1995.

Japan’s whaling fleet will depart soon for the Antarctic where it will kill almost 900 minke whales and ten fin whales for research.

Source:WDCS