Shows, below the record of a new slaughter of whales by Japan. have begun the assault in total anonymity by turning off the radio signals to identify the vessels. In a month they will reach their destination, in the Antarctic, to celebrate Christmas slaughtering whales. These are the eight boats comprising the fleet from hunting Japanese catcher for four chasing and killing prey, a vessel for the slaughter of farm animals of the world's largest, a pair of reconnaissance aircraft and a support boat.
Harpoons Nipponese move south with the aim of killing a thousand whales in the name of science. Tokyo can not formally violate the moratorium that was decided decades ago by the International Whaling Commission in order to prevent the rapid extinction of Moby Dick, his is an official fact-finding mission. But a fin whale (we call it that because it is also in the Mediterranean even if they are anything but common) weighs between 60 and 80 tonnes, would seem to offer enough material to give jobs to several laboratories, but the fleet for two decades Japan kills for scientific reasons " centinaia di balene l'anno.
Questa volta Tokyo ha alzato il tiro: nel mirino degli arpioni entreranno non solo 935 balenottere minori e 50 balenottere comuni ma per la prima volta anche 50 megattere, una specie rara e amatissima dagli appassionati di whalewatching. Gli australiani le conoscono per nome e le identificano al passaggio: il prossimo anno ne identificheranno qualcuna in meno.
"E' un massacro condotto in nome di un concetto distorto delle tradizioni nazionali, di usanze alimentari scomparse da molti decenni", accusa Alessandro Giannì, il responsabile mare di Greenpeace. "Nonostante anni di campagne di promozione nelle scuole, il rito del sushi whale is dead. 95 percent of Japanese have never eaten whale meat or have tasted out of curiosity. And then private industry could not support a campaign so expensive. Pay the government $ 50 million to take the point. But the Icelanders, the only other, together with Norway in practice this massacre, have preferred to stop assuming that there is no market for whale meat. "
The market is missing and whales as well. Of the 250 000 blue whales that beat the South Seas has been only a small representation: about 3 000 copies. boreal Even fewer whales: a thousand. All over the world is probably a million copies, maybe less.
Their fate is hanging on the edge of the political balance within the International Whaling Commission, a structure created after the war in 1963 decided that the moratorium on the hunting of humpback whales in 1987 and extended for a halt to all species. In recent years, however, the pressing led by Japan and supported by Norway and Iceland has increased the votes in favor of the Harpoon. For the resumption of hunting has been backed by small developing countries whose economic destinies are tied to trade with Tokyo.
If the moratorium is broken it is likely that the killing would take little for lack of raw material. Estimates of whale populations are very approximate: the real numbers could be lower. Also because the two centuries of indiscriminate hunting has added other threats. First oil pollution, heavy metals, dioxins and PCBs has produced paradoxical results: a few months ago the body of a whale on a beach over the German has been disposed of as hazardous waste because it contained a large percentage of pollutants.
Then there are collisions with ships and the incidental catch in swordfish and other networks killer. Finally, the air pollution disaster. On one hand, the weakening of the ozone shield, the other, the increasing greenhouse effect that has changed in the life cycle Antarctic encouraging jellyfish and decreasing the plankton they eat whales.
"Climate change is causing a crisis throughout the balance of the sea and the survival of large whales and this is one more reason to step up security measures," says Environment Minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio. "From this point of view there are some good news. Today we have reached an agreement with the Tunisian government and that of Malta in the Sicily Channel to create a second sanctuary for the whales after the one established between the Riviera, the Strait of Bonifacio and Liguria. It 's a big decision because the area between Lampedusa and Tunisia is a large reservoir of biodiversity, a nursery in the Mediterranean. "
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