Icelandic ship Alma, which sailed from Iceland earlier this year, has arrived in Japan with 2000 tonnes of Icelandic whale meat, reports the Japan Daily Press.
By importing the whale meat the Japanese have gotten around the recent UN ICJ ruling demanding the Japanese to quit whaling. Although they have respected the ruling by not taking to hunting themselves the current shipment from Iceland is as large as two-third’s of the nation’s annual consumption.
“Alma, arrived on May 7 and we were informed in advance that it would carry whale meat to be unloaded at Osaka port.” said a statement from Junichi Sato of Greenpeace Japan. “We don’t know why Japan had to import such a huge volume of whale meat.”
Sato reiterated that Greenpeace Japan “oppose such shipments.”
As reported, the demand for whale meat in Japan has been decreasing for many years and much of it is now being turned into dog food.
Meanwhile, whale hunting season is well under way in Iceland. The first whale of the season has already been hunted and an additional 49 are included in the quota. Moreover, 154 fin whales – listed as endangered by the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals – will also be hunted this year, starting in June.
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