Rescue ICR? not the victims of 3.11?
At an October 4th press conference, the Japanese government announced it would carry out the fall term of research whaling in Antarctica, which was earlier cut short in February of this year.
The Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR), an organization that runs with the profit from whale meat sales and the 500 million yen annual government subsidy, conducts the research whaling. However the whaling operation has become a challenge recently, with the decrease in whale meat sales and interruptions by anti-whaling groups in Antarctica. The operation is now continually running a deficit, making it difficult to continue. The review committee on research whaling included in its July report the possibility of terminating or decreasing the size of research whaling.
Still, on Oct 21st, a third supplementary budget was approved by the Cabinet: Of the Fisheries Agency's 498.9 billion yen budget, 2.284 billion yen is allocated to research whaling stabilization promotion measures, to what they say is for the recovery of local whaling towns.
However, after a closer look at the supplementary budget, it is apparent that the government is covering with the taxpayers' money the entire 3 billion yen the ICR is supposed to bear.
It should also be noted that the sluggish sales of whale meat is not a result of the March disaster.
This begs the question: How does research whaling contribute to the recovery of local coastal communities when it is sending vessels to the other side of the planet?
