http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23206087-2,00.html
Unwanted whale meat stockpile grows
By Lauren Williams
February 13, 2008 01:40am
Article from:
Japan's whalers going broke
Force to slash prices over unwanted whale meat
"Further proof of no market for whale market"
JAPAN's whalers are going broke and have been forced to slash prices because no one wants to eat their growing mountain of whale meat.
The farcical truth of Japan's whaling industry was exposed yesterday by Japanese media reports that the Institute for Cetacean Research is struggling to repay $37 million in government subsidies.
The report came as Japanese embassy officials made a stern protest in Canberra over the Federal Government's release of shocking whaling photographs.
The ICR, responsible for Japan's lethal "research operation", is flooding Japan with cheap whale meat that it cannot sell, according to the reports in respected newspaper Asahi Shimbun.
Meat and other parts of whales killed during ICR "scientific research" in the Southern Ocean is sold to a private fisheries company Kyodo Senpaku, which manages the sale of whale meat in the Japanese market. But while ICR has consistently increased the number of whales it kills – by 30 per cent between 2005 and 2006 – there has been no rise in domestic demand for whale meat or products.
Greenpeace Australia Pacific whales campaign director Rob Nicholl said the losses were further proof that there was no market for whale meat in Japan.
"It's standard economics. There is an oversupply. They've had to reduce the price but they still can't get rid of the stuff," he said.
Japan has consistently argued a case for scientific whaling and last week accused the Government and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of "misleading" the public by releasing photographs of the slaughter of whales in the Southern Ocean.
A DFAT spokesman said, while the photographs were "disturbing, they were in no sense misleading".
Why not sending the full original article, since you give the impression, that you have it??
So that we all can see?
Otherwise you can say a lot.
Why not sending the full original article, since you give the impression, that you have it??
I've also seen things here and there about the stockpile of whale meat increasing in Japan. I'm more likely to believe that than what Japan would say about it, since we know Japan has been deceptive about other things.
The second article says that the sales of whale meat has been increasing yearly, it was JPY4.0 billion in 1997 but became JPY7.1 bil. in 2004 which was the peak year.
Why not sending the full original article, since you give the impression, that you have it??
So that we all can see?
Otherwise you can say a lot.
This above arrived on a very respected international science forum, not even from a Greenpeacer, and was not objected from the Japanese there either.
As for 6 alone, why then does it go into dog meat(!) and schools and is taken out and sells out on many places?
I suggest you check the places where you read that the stockpile of whale meat is increasing. Where did the people saying this get the information from?
Japan currently has 4000 tonnes of frozen whale meat in storage, and in an attempt to get rid of the unwanted meat it is fed to schoolchildren and served free at some local festivals.
The article from the Asahi is here:
http://www.asahi.com/business/update/0201/TKY200802010378.html
The original information appears to have been spinned by Greenpeace Australia and then put out as "news" by the Daily Telegraph.
Good whale meat is turned into pet food? Can you give me some detailed examples of this?
Less than 200 tonnes of whale meat are supplied to schools for school lunch programmes each year. Outgoing whale meat stock volumes have increased by around 3,000 tonnes since the year 2000.
I suggest you check the places where you read that the stockpile of whale meat is increasing. Where did the people saying this get the information from?
And once more, can we have a correct and complete translation, please?
Strange, that we only get parts here and there.
Research whaling, the breast cannot pay financing 1,000,000,000 yen from the pinch country, too;
February 02, 2008 08:52
ﾂ The fund raising of the Japanese research whaling turns worse. 1,000,000,000 yen were not able to return Japan whales research institute (the laboratory of whale) of line troops Foundation among operating funds of 3,600,000,000 yen that they borrowed from the country free of interest by the settlement of accounts (from October, 06 to September, 07) in 06. A fire and a death accident occur by a whaler last year. Catches decrease by an interruption of the operation, and it is a direct factor that the sale of the whale meat decreased by 20%, but the increase of the cost with the recent capture head count expansion and the large reduction in price of the whale meat for 05-06 years influence it.
ﾂ 3,600,000,000 yen finance it in a foundation of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries jurisdiction, the short term from the overseas fishery cooperation foundation. I was going to return it in borrowing, an end of the fiscal year at the beginning of the year. However, it comes to have no room for the fund, and it is said that I had paying it back do the division of four years of for 1,000,000,000 yen from 07.
ﾂ The rental of overseas fishery cooperation foundation financial funds are subsidies from the countries, and the interest-free financing to the laboratory of whale is financing from the countries virtually. What the laboratory of whale came to borrow from the foundation settles an account in 01 when I have begun to increase capture head count. The age was 1,200,000,000 yen, but capture head count increased, and the sums increased, too. I borrowed it of 1 degree from a civilian in the past, but it is said that I stop it afterwards because an interest rate was high.
ﾂ The laboratory of whale increased the whaling head count in the Antarctic Ocean to 850 of them from 440 of them with a name to strengthen the ecosystem investigation of the whale for 05-06 years. The supply of the whale meat is a little over 30% increase, too. As a result, the whale meat sale incomes have decreased by about 6% from the last year when they cut an average of 20% because even a public business did not have to be popular.
ﾂ On the other hand, the cost is 10% rise. The number of ships of the fleet increases to 6 from 5, and the reason is because it was prolonged for the investigation period. It is said that there "is thinking whether cut too much whale meat at that time if it is now" as for one of the people concerned.
ﾂ The return to the Treasury of the surplus fund that the settlement of accounts had it of tens of millions of yen with current-account deficit of 700,000,000 yen in an average year in 06 was beginning. Fisheries Agency ocean section having jurisdiction over a business and laboratory of whale executive officer, in "last year, the unexpected troubles such as fires are factors". After this year, I tell that the income and expenditure is restored if I usually become the pace. But there is the intermittent sabotage such as American environmentalist groups, and whaling stops this year from 15th. Whale meat supplies decrease if prolonged, and the income and expenditure may turn worse more.
The influence such as ship a fire / the accident to decrease by whale meat income 20%
January 26, 2008 07:36
ﾂ I understood that the whale meat sale income of "the Japanese whales research institute" which carried out research whaling became 5,400,000,000 yen of 20% decrease compared with the previous fiscal year by the settlement of accounts (from October, 06 to September, 07) in 06. Decrease width maximum-scale since 87 when research whaling began. What whaling stopped in the accident that a ship fire and the worker of the last year died at one time affects it.
ﾂ The research institute is a foundation of the Fisheries Agency jurisdiction. The research institute raised the wholesale price of the whale meat by about 6% in last May to cover the fall of the income. It is said that I try for cost reduction.
ﾂ The greatest income source where the sale income of the whale meat holds 40% (the 05 settlement of accounts) of the income total of the research institute. Administration is the situation that I cannot maintain unless I continue taking the whale.
ﾂ The sale incomes of the whale meat increased year by year till now. It was 4,000,000,000 yen in 97, but swelled out to 7,100,000,000 yen in 04 of the peak. Because it increased the capture head count of the whale, the reason is because the supplies to the market increased.
He doesn't say where he got the information from, but being in Greenpeace Japan he probably knows some reliable sources:
Japan currently has 4000 tonnes of frozen whale meat in storage
and in an attempt to get rid of the unwanted meat it is fed to schoolchildren and served free at some local festivals.
I put all the sources in the information already, as written there. I suggest, you just read them again, before you are asking me.
And so far, it does not say at all that it is via Greenpeace sources, right? At least, I could not find this in the texts.
I would question what he is trying to say by giving this figure.
I see whale meat every time I go to the grocery store. It's called "Kujira Bacon" (Whale Bacon). I've never bought it, though.I would not really question it give or take a few kilos.
I lived in Japan a long time, and only saw a small bite size chunk of whale flesh on a foam tray covered in cling wrap at a local Kyoto Saty sueprmarket..
Aprt from that, never saw it for sale..
1000 Whales is a lot of flesh in anyone's language, and let's not forget, they are whaling for "scientific research" LOL
How popular can it be!
I see whale meat every time I go to the grocery store. It's called "Kujira Bacon" (Whale Bacon). I've never bought it, though.
When I lived further out west, there was a convenience store in the next town over that sold frozen whale meat in maybe 500g chunks. If you go to sushi restaurants, you can often see it on the menu.
But honestly, I think that whale meat is seen more as a delicacy than a food staple. It's the same as horse meat, which IS a delicacy in parts of the country, and even bee larvae (also a delicacy in certain parts), etc.
How popular it is is hard to quantify, I think.
After all, how popular is escargo, etc.?
As for my husband, he's never asked for it again.
I lived in Japan a long time, and only saw a small bite size chunk of whale flesh on a foam tray covered in cling wrap at a local Kyoto Saty supermarket..
(Think of the high mercury level in marine animals that are high in the food chain pyramid!)
I bought it just from curiosity and prepared it as fried cutlets. It was tough and stringy and nothing to be excited about. My kids ate it silently at the table but told me later that they'd rather have fried fish or pork.
As for my husband, he's never asked for it again.
The original version says nothing of Greenpeace, but the Daily Telegraph report where Greenpeace is mentioned presents a very different (and quite hysterical) version of the story.
I would say, they simply sum up the informations they get, and that can be from many sides, as is usus in the press. To say, that it all came from or via Greenpeace, as done before, is simply as hysterical and manipulating. . .and downright wrong, if not proven.