 The IWC Scientific Committee's estimate of this species in the waters surrounding Iceland is 43,000, and the proposed number of the research take is not likely to affect the health of the stock.
Commenting on Iceland's announcement, Japanese Fisheries Agency officials stressed that the research program is a legitimate right pursuant to the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling. |
Anti-whaling groups in the U.S. are reportedly trying to press the U.S. Government to invoke its domestic Pelly Amendment to ban fish imports from Iceland in retaliation against the Iceland's research whaling. However, observers believe that imposition of such a sanction is not likely because it would infringe upon the rules of the World Trade Organization. |
The City of Yokohama held a symposium under the theme of "What Made Japan Open the Country to Foreign Influences? Exploring the Relations Among Yokohama, Perry and Whales" on July 13, 2003.
The symposium was to mark the 150th anniversary of the coming to Japan of Matthew G. Perry (1794-1858), a U.S. naval officer who reopened Japan to the Western world after more than 200years of National Seclusion.
19th century American whaling
Perry led an expedition to open diplomatic and commercial relations
between the United States and Japan. He arrived on 8 July 1853 in
Edo Bay (now Tokyo Bay), where Yokohama was located. One of the motives
behind U.S. demand was apparently to secure rescue of crew as well
as supply of water, food and fuel for American whaling fleets then
at their prime time in the North Pacific.
Perry's coming resulted in signing of the Kanagawa Treaty between Japan and the United States on 31 March 1854. Four years after Perry's landing, Yokohama, then a tiny fishing village, opened its port to the outside world in 1859 to later become one of major international ports of Japan. |
Matthew G. Perry
The symposium was featured by keynote speeches by notable personalities,
including Dr. Seiji Ohsumi, Director-General of the Institute of
Cetacean Research, who spoke on the comparison of whaling between
Japan and the United States at the time of Perry's advent. The
keynote speeches were followed by a panel discussion among lecturers,
with Mr. Masayuki Komatsu, Director for Research and Environment
Protection of the Fisheries Agency, serving as coordinator and
other participants actively joining from the floor.
After the symposium, a reception
was held in which participants enjoyed various types of whale dishes and local
specialities.
(Photos: by courtesy of the New Bedford Whaling Museum.) |
