That's an aim which we're trying to achieve. When the 1946 Convention under which we operate was signed, one of the major articles introduced by the USA was the provision for a government to be able to issue permits for research purposes. That has always been in the Convention and many governments over the years have caught quite large numbers of whales for research purposes but associated with that provision is whales are too valuable just to catch, measure and throw away. If you catch whales for research purposes, the requirement is that they are fully utilised and the products disposed of in a way that the government decides. In other words, the products have to be fully utilised and Japan is doing what every other government has done in previous years.
Japan has two major programmes for research.
In the North Pacific, the stock structure is an especially important item because it's not at all clear how many different stocks of whales there are and so the research by Japan in that area is designed specifically to answer those questions. We know that there's enough minkes in the ocean, so it's possible to take out a few without affecting the whale-population. After all, whaling means jobs for people who need them. Most of the whaling that the IWC is considering as a possible future commercial whaling operation would occur within coastal waters of the different countries and of course, there are strong feelings by governments that they have control over these waters. I'm English and I work for a Japanese company.