Whale expedition lays down challenge to Japan

Scientists have returned from Antarctic waters hoping their non-lethal methods will influence Japan's policy of killing whales for research.

The first New Zealand-Australia Antarctic Whale Expedition to research whales in the Southern Ocean returned to Wellington yesterday after six weeks in the Ross Sea. Seventeen scientists from Australia and New Zealand, and one from France, on Niwa ship Tangaroa collected small skin and blubber samples from 60 humpback whales, attached satellite tags to 30 whales and recorded the calls of blue whales.

Australian Environment Protection Minister Peter Garrett said yesterday the expedition had achieved significant milestones.

"The research undertaken on this expedition indicates that there are effective and achievable ways to collect a whole range of important whale data without the need to kill these mammals."

The Japanese Government-sponsored Institute of Cetacean Research has said the expedition will have little impact on their policy of killing whales – as many as 1000 a year – for research.

The institute's spokesman, New Zealander Glenn Inwood, said yesterday he would not comment until the scientists made public their research.

The 1986 ban on commercial whaling allows the mammals to be killed for research, but scientific grounds for the hunt have been criticised by anti-whaling groups.

Mr Garrett said results from the voyage would be presented to an International Whaling Commission meeting in Morocco in June.

Australian Antarctic Division senior whale biologist Nick Gales said the research should answer questions about whales' feeding habits, breeding and migration.

"Hauling them up ... and measuring parts of them really is not the type of [information] that the IWC requires."

New Zealand's IWC representative, Sir Geoffrey Palmer, said the research with Australia showed a deep commitment to end commercial whaling.

Sir Geoffrey said the voyage would put scientific pressure on Japan, which he expected to take part in discussions at the IWC in June.

"You can find out what you need to know by non-lethal research. That's a big message."

Science Minister Wayne Mapp said $14 million had been put in by the two countries, which had committed to a voyage every two years.

Auckland University biological scientist Rochelle Constantine said skin samples could reveal the sex of a whale, which whales in a group it was related to and which whale population it was from.

The blubber samples could tell scientists about a whale's diet.

"The Japanese have not embraced the new technologies. There's more and more you can do from a small tissue sample. It lays down the challenge to Japan that you don't need to kill whales to research them."

- © Fairfax NZ News