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Australia leads whaling protest

Australia and some 30 other countries, including the EU, lodged a diplomatic protest to send "a very powerful signal" of international displeasure over Japan's whaling program, officials said yesterday, despite Tokyo's suspension of its plans to kill humpbacks.

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith praised Japan for suspending plans to add up to 50 humpbacks to its annual hunt of 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales, but said Japan must do more.

"The Australian government strongly believes that there is no credible justification for the hunting of any whales and will vigorously pursue its efforts, announced earlier this week, to see an end to whaling by Japan," Smith said in a statement.

Late on Friday, Australia led a group of nations in lodging a diplomatic protest with the Japanese ambassador to Australia. Smith said it was the largest single diplomatic protest yet against Japan's whaling program.

"The strength of international support for the diplomatic protest led by Australia shows that there is strong international concern over Japan's whaling program," Smith said. "The formal diplomatic protest sends a very powerful signal to the government of Japan."

It was not immediately clear what demands were laid out in the protest. Officials at the Japanese embassy could not immediately be reached for comment yesterday.

Tokyo has staunchly defended its annual kill of more than 1,000 whales as crucial for research purposes. Japan's whaling fleet is run by a government-backed research institute and operates under a clause in International Whaling Commission rules that allows the killing of whales for scientific purposes, a claim Australia and other nations dismiss as a sham.

Japan dispatched its whaling fleet last month to the Antarctic Ocean in the first major hunt of humpback whales since the 1960s. Commercial hunts of humpbacks have been banned worldwide since 1966, and commercial whaling overall since 1986.

Japan had planned to harpoon 50 humpback whales which are major attractions for Australian whale-watchers, on its expedition.

But the plan generated immediate criticism from environmental groups, which oppose the hunts to begin with but were outraged by the inclusion of humpbacks because they are so rare.

But chief Japanese government spokesman Nobutaka Machimura vowed the fleet en route to Antarctic waters would go ahead with its hunt of nearly 1,000 other whales, saying Australia and Japan had basic cultural differences on the issue.

Smith said that while Australia and Japan disagreed about whaling, it would not affect the continuing strength of the "warm and productive" relationship between the countries, which are military allies and major trading partners.

The Australian government announced this week it would step up action to block the hunt, including sending a surveillance plane and a ship to gather evidence for a possible international legal challenge.
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