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Scientists believe they’ve discovered proof of a new form of unregulated whaling along the coastlines of Japan and South Korea – “bycatch” whaling. “Bycatch” refers to whales killed incidentally by legal coastal fisheries.
Japan and South Korea are the only countries allow for the commercial sale of “bycatch” whale products.
According to Scott Baker of Oregon State University, “DNA analysis of whale-meat products sold in Japanese markets suggests that the number of whales actually killed through this ‘bycatch whaling’ may be equal to that killed through Japan’s scientific whaling program – about 150 annually from each source.”
Along with Vimoksalehi Lukoscheck of the University of California-Irvine, Baker told the International Whaling Commission at its most recent conference that “46 percent of the minke whale products they examined in Japanese markets originated from a coastal population, which has distinct genetic characteristics, and is protected by international agreements.”
In past years, Japan has reported as few as 19 minke whales killed in a single year through bycatch. According to Baker, the price of an adult minke whale can reach as high as $100,000, and he says, “Given these financial incentives, you have to wonder how many of these whales are, in fact, killed intentionally.”
In 2008, Korean police broke up an illegal whaling operation in Ulsan, where they reportedly seized 50 tons of minke whale meat.
 Two humpback whales feeding north of Cape Cod  Nice baleen shot (click on the images to see them larger)
Last week, we went on a whale watching tour out of Provincetown, Mass. We saw around 2 dozen humpback whales feeding. It was whale soup out there. Sometimes you’d look up and see 3 – 5 whales feeding, blowing and/or diving.
Above are a couple pics my wife took. She pretty much snapped a few pictures and then said, “Forget it. I’m here to watch whales, not take pictures.” I’ve got a lot more video I need to edit together, but I’ll try to post some soon.
Also, a WAWD reader reports seeing 3 mother/calf humpback combos, 3 minkes, and a dozen or so finbacks on a trip out of Hyannis earlier this week.
And on your way out to Provincetown, be sure to stop and eat at Moby Dick’s in Wellfleet!
 At Moby Dick's, the food tastes good when you eat it.
 At least one whale should be spared on account of the effort that went into this guy's "stop whaling" suit (AFP) It’s whaling season’s opening day in Iceland, and some guy named Gudmundur Haraldsson is throwing out the first harpoon. “We hope to catch the first minke whale today,” said Haraldsson, one of the whalers on board the Johanna AR.
Gunnar Bergmann Jonsson, manager of the minke whaler association, told AFP, “The first batch of meat will be in stores by the weekend.” He went on to add that this should give everyone in Iceland enough time to blow up their car for insurance money so they could afford said whale meat.
Here’s an idea. I’m just throwing it out there. Whale watching, one of the more popular tourist activities in Iceland, alone will not solve Iceland’s crushing economic problems. Nor is whaling the answer. But perhaps some sort of combo of the two activities could right the ship. You know how in some restaurants you can pick the lobster you want out of a tank? Well, in Iceland you could go out on a boat and go, “Kill that whale for me! That’s the whale I want to eat!”
You think I’m crazy, but that’s what they told the guy that built Dubai. They said, “You’re crazy. People won’t go to Vegas with no casinos.” But now that place is full of people wearing $10,000 Gucci dresses under a burka.
 This fin whale, an endangered species, was reportedly the first whale taken by Iceland’s fleet in October, after the country elected to return to commercial whaling. (Ragnar Axelsson—AFP/Getty Images) Right now, Iceland has more problems than you can shake a stick at: it’s recently suffered the largest (relative) banking collapse in economic history, and Vanity Fair says its people are hoarding cash and blowing up their cars for insurance money.
Bad international PR from commercial whaling probably isn’t helping matters very much either.
Iceland returned to commercial whaling in 2006. One of the last acts of the collapsed, outgoing government was to approve fin and minke whaling for five years. Now, new Fisheries Minister Steingrimur Sigfusson, says Iceland would like to ban commercial whaling as soon as next year.
Sigfusson, who is also the country’s finance minister, says of whaling in his country:
“I’m very concerned that such large-scale commercial whaling can be very risky in terms of total interests for Iceland.”
“I hope we get some understanding from the outside world that we were faced with the decision of a former government that we could not immediately overturn, at least not for 2009, on any substantial basis. But that doesn’t mean that such a substantial basis can’t be established.”
“I distinguish between the traditional small-town coastal whaling, and I fully support our right to do that in a self- sustainable way as we have always done. But commercial industrial whaling is another thing.”
 Illustration by Jamie Littler Not a lot of news so far from the first couple days of the IWC meeting in Rome, but I did find this post that says Japan rejected the proposal to end – or to phase out – “scientific whaling” in exchange for whaling rights in her coastal waters.
In 2008, Japan killed over 900 minke whales, 50 endangered fin whales, and 50 humpback whales. National Geographic reports in the Kingdom of the Blue Whale documentary that they found blue whale meat for sale in Japanese markets.
(The above illustration is from UK-based illustrator Jamie Littler, who produced this piece for a project on Japanese whaling.)
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