ID :
163489
Wed, 02/23/2011 - 18:00
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https://www.oananews.org//node/163489
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Whale meat sales expected to drop on obstruction by Sea Shepherd
TOKYO (Kyodo) - The Japanese Institute of Cetacean Research expects its whale meat sales revenues in the year to September 2011 to fall 16.5 percent from the previous year due to obstruction of Japan's so-called research whaling by conservationists, institute officials said Wednesday.
The figure was estimated in the institute's fiscal 2010 budget even before Japan halted its whaling operations in the Antarctic Ocean for this season earlier this month after Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessels impeded them.
The actual decline in the institute's whale sales revenues will thus be even sharper than estimated in the budget.
The nonprofit institute has depended heavily on revenues from the sale of whale meat to raise funds for what it describes as research whaling and has no choice but to reduce its research outlays.
The budget indicates that whale meat revenues fell from about 6.4 billion yen in fiscal 2008 to 5.4 billion yen in fiscal 2009 and about 4.5 billion yen in fiscal 2010 in line with the decline in whale catches.
The institute has accordingly reduced its fiscal 2010 research whaling outlays by 16.8 percent to about 5 billion yen.
''If the obstruction continues, the present system of financing research whaling with revenues from whale meat sales may fail to be sustained,'' an institute official said.
Japan has hunted whales since 1987 for what it says are scientific research purposes after officially halting commercial whaling in line with an international moratorium. Environmentalists condemn the activity as a cover for the continuation of commercial whaling.
The figure was estimated in the institute's fiscal 2010 budget even before Japan halted its whaling operations in the Antarctic Ocean for this season earlier this month after Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessels impeded them.
The actual decline in the institute's whale sales revenues will thus be even sharper than estimated in the budget.
The nonprofit institute has depended heavily on revenues from the sale of whale meat to raise funds for what it describes as research whaling and has no choice but to reduce its research outlays.
The budget indicates that whale meat revenues fell from about 6.4 billion yen in fiscal 2008 to 5.4 billion yen in fiscal 2009 and about 4.5 billion yen in fiscal 2010 in line with the decline in whale catches.
The institute has accordingly reduced its fiscal 2010 research whaling outlays by 16.8 percent to about 5 billion yen.
''If the obstruction continues, the present system of financing research whaling with revenues from whale meat sales may fail to be sustained,'' an institute official said.
Japan has hunted whales since 1987 for what it says are scientific research purposes after officially halting commercial whaling in line with an international moratorium. Environmentalists condemn the activity as a cover for the continuation of commercial whaling.
