The whale hunt must stop.
Japanese citizens please lobby your government to stop the so called scientific whale research which is to take place in these coming weeks and months, the Japanese whaling fleet will set sail this week for the Southern Ocean. For the first time, their catch will include 50 humpback whales, as well as 935 minke and 50 fin whales.
Humpbacks from Australian waters will be among those slaughtered, your friends or relatives may have returned recently from Australia and experienced watching these whales in their natural habitat, from one of the many whale watching tourist boats operating in Australia. These whales have no fear of boats or humans as they have grown up free of hunting. If the hunt goes on this season, this trust of human will have gone.
They are beautiful creatures and they need us to protect them, Southern Cross University researchers have challenged the Japanese Institute of Cetacean Research to a full debate on its program of ツ'scientific whaling', which this summer will include the killing of 50 Australian humpback whales.
Associate Professor Peter Harrison, director of the Southern Cross University Whale Research Centre, has refuted claims by the Institute that lethal research is necessary to obtain accurate information on these whales. SCU's Whale Research Centre has new non-lethal techniques for collecting genetic data on the humpback population.
Professor Harrison said the data was obtained by genetic testing, using the DNA in skin samples left behind in the water after photographically identified whales had breached, together with small biopsy samples of humpback whales from Alaska provided by one of the research partners, Professor Scott Baker from Oregon State University, USA.
It is time to stop, taking endangered species of whales!
Act now,
Please