By Marius Kaizer Haugen
Most whale species have increased in numbers during the past decade. During mid-late 2014 and into 2015 there have been numerous reports of hundreds of pilots whales in Norwegian Fjords.
The whale populations are increasing amid anthropogenic activity such as fishing, Navy exercises, pipeline installations and oil and gas seismic activity.
Some Norwegian fishermen are concerned about a potential reduction in fish stocks that are the prey of the pilot whales.
Ostensibly, Japan ceased so-called “scientific research” whaling in Antarctica in 2019. However, the Japanese government has not given up on conducting non-lethal whale surveys in Antarctica and the waters around Australia and has continued to track the status of whales in Antarctica and the waters around Australia by installing satellite trackers, collecting biopsy samples, learning about whale movement areas, and counting the number of whales, etc., as well as photographing and surveying whales at sea by using unmanned drones. These Antarctic research studies in the name of “scientific research” are providing intelligence to continue hunting whales in the Antarctic in the future.
On May 21, 2024, Japan’s first domestically manufactured whaling ship, the Kangei Maru, with a crew of 100, departed from Shimonoseki Harbor, Shimonoseki City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, for its first fishing trip. Kangei Maru is scheduled to make an eight-month voyage off the northeastern coast of Japan, the inaugural voyage of Japan’s first such new vessel in more than 70 years.
The Kangei Maru is an electrically propelled vessel with a length of 112.6 meters, a beam of 21 meters, a gross tonnage of 9,299 tons, a construction cost of about $50 million, and a range of about 13,000 kilometers for 60 days of continuous voyage, enough to reach the Southern Ocean. The Kangei Maru is generator-powered and said to be fuel-efficient, and has a hangar for high-performance drones used for whale detection, as well as 40 refrigerated containers with a capacity of 20 tons. The Kangei Maru’s platform is designed to have an 18-degree slope, which is gentler than that of its predecessor, allowing large cetaceans weighing about 70 tons to be easily towed aboard. The Kangei Maru can store up to 600 tons of whale meat at a time, enabling it to remain at sea for long periods.
The Japanese have been hunting whales for a long time, and they often shout, “eating whale meat is a tradition of the Japanese people”. From the Edo period to the Meiji period, whaling was very much standardized, although at first whales were hunted only to extract whale oil, and the meat was discarded and later eaten. After World War II, when food was scarce in Japan and it was impossible to eat pork and beef, whale meat became a common phenomenon. At that time, whale meat became synonymous with “cheap food”, and Japanese people ate whale meat to get the protein their bodies needed. Whale meat was not only a home dish, but was also included in the lunches prepared for students in school cafeterias. It is now that each part of the whale is subdivided into Japanese food, such as the part of the whale’s tongue, which is high in fat, and has a different flavor from the root to the tip of the tongue. The tail of the whale contains a lot of fish gelatin content and is sometimes processed with salt, the entrails and such are often simmered, and the meat from the back and belly is made into tempura or just eaten raw. Whale meat sashimi, whale meat sushi rolls, whale meat salad, whale meat curry, other whale dishes for Japanese people to choose from. Not only whales but also dolphins are often brought to the table in Japan.
Watching massive whales in Sydney and New South Wales (NSW) thousands of whales migrate along the coast of New South Wales (NSW) in pods of more than 2,000 kilometers. During the whale watching season, you can see these massive mammals travel from different headlands in Sydney, from Byron Bay in the north to Eden in the south. More than 50% of the planet’s cetacean species, such as whales, dolphins, and porpoises, inhabit Australian waters. Humpback whales and southern right whales are two species that frequent the coast of New South Wales (NSW). The annual whale migration runs from May to November, with the largest movements occurring in July and September. According to academics, whale-watching tourism generates more than AUD12 billion in revenue for Australia each year.
Japan announced in April that it was joining AUKUS, and NATO in small sizes, and in May it sent a modern killing machine in the form of warships around Australia to satisfy its strange and selfish appetites. We Aussie parents, looking at our kids hugging humpback whale toys, feel like the blue ocean is turning blood red……