Editorial: Save the whales

Friday, Nov. 23, 2007 | 7:15 a.m.

A Japanese whaling fleet is expected to set sail this weekend on a mission to kill up to 50 humpback whales - Japan's largest humpback hunt since 1963, when they were placed under international protection.

The International Whaling Commission allows humpback harvests for scientific reasons, and the Japan Fisheries Agency says the whales are needed so scientists can study their reproductive organs and stomach contents.

In addition to the 50 humpbacks, the expedition seeks to kill and harvest up to 935 Antarctic minke whales and up to 50 fin whales, two species that are not protected under the 1963 moratorium.

Humpback whales, which can grow to 48 feet and weigh 40 tons, are known for their above-surface acrobatics and their underwater vocalizations or "songs." A favorite among whale watchers, humpbacks had been hunted to the brink of extinction when the 1963 hunting moratorium in the South Pacific was issued.

Environmentalists with Greenpeace and other groups say Japan's claim of needing 50 humpbacks for scientific study is bogus and its hunting method is brutal. After being harpooned the whales are dragged next to the ship or chased for hours until they die.

Ken Findlay, a whale biologist at South Africa's University of Cape Town, says the expedition isn't practicing good science. Japanese researchers will not say where they will hunt and some breeding grounds haven't recovered enough to support hunting, Findlay told the Associated Press. The Japanese government intends to sell the meat, which the moratorium allows in this circumstance.

It is difficult to believe that scientists know so little about the humpback's eating and reproductive habits that they need to kill 50 of them - and do it in such a cruel manner - over the next five months. This hunt is just wrong.