THE INSTITUTE OF CETACEAN RESEARCH
4-5 TOYOMI-CHO, CHUO-KU, TOKYO 104-0055 JAPAN
PHONE: +81-3-3536-6521 FAX: +81-3536-6522

MEDIA RELEASE
12 January 2006

ACTIVISTS TRY TO STOP NON-LETHAL RESEARCH
The Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) said today that, in a bizarre move,
Greenpeace had now turned its attention towards stopping the non-lethal research
conducted by the Japanese Antarctic fleet.
Japan’s second Research Program in the Antarctic (JARPA II) includes both lethal andnon-lethal research, the latter of which involves biopsy sampling and sighting surveys tohelp determine abundance figures and which does not involve harming the whale.
“Greenpeace tells the world that you can find out all you need through whale researchthat doesn’t involve killing the animal,” the ICR’s Director General Hiroshi Hatanaka said.
“While our scientific papers to the IWC have demonstrated the falsity of that claim, weknow there is still important knowledge to be gained from non-lethal research. Sighting
surveys add to the gathering of information for the proper management of whaleresources,” he said.
“So why, then, is Greenpeace using their Zodiac inflatables to prevent us fromconducting our non-lethal program?” Has it got to the point where Greenpeace has now
abandoned all science?”
In the meantime, statistics from the Antarctic fleet have shown that the average time ittakes to dispatch a whale has increased as a direct result of Greenpeace and Sea
Shepherd’s activities.
Dr. Hatanaka said that an analysis of statistics shows that the time to death increases
dramatically when Greenpeace activists get between the harpoon and the whale.
“Without Greenpeace, 52 percent of the whales die instantly, while the remainder isrendered in under two minutes,” Dr. Hatanaka said. “When Greenpeace activists put
themselves between the harpoon and the whale, the time to death of the animal has
sometimes surpassed half an hour, and more precisely in the case of one whale, 35min
10secs from the strike of the first harpoon to confirmation of death.”(More to follow …)

Page 2 – Activists Try to Stop Non-Lethal Research“When they get in front of the catcher boats, the harpoon can hit a less than optimum
part of the whale's body. In the above case, the harpoon detached and we had an
injured whale swimming around. So the time necessary to shoot additional harpoons
increases as a consequence of Greenpeace presence,” Dr. Hatanaka said.
“Greenpeace is not saving any whales, they are only condemning them to a slow death.”“If the harpooner does not get the optimum shot, it takes a certain amount of time toreload the harpoon, because of the explosive nature of the device and the fact it has agrenade in its tip,” he said. The grenade explodes inside the whale normally killing it
instantly.
“Our harpooners are very professional, and even Greenpeace has admitted on its
website the Japanese harpooners are very good shots. The point is that Greenpeace
knows that if they harass the catcher boats they can get the bloody footage required fortheir PR campaign,” he added.
ENDS
For further information contact:
Mr. Hideki MORONUKI, Far Seas Fisheries Division, Fisheries Agency,
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Tel: +81-3-3502-2443
Visit also: www.icrwhale.org