Japan rejects plan to limit whaling to its waters

TOKYO (AP) — Japan said Tuesday it will reject any proposal by the International Whaling Commission that halts its research missions in the Antarctic, making it unlikely that a compromise plan for limited coastal whaling would work.

The proposal would allow Japan to hunt whales commercially in its territorial waters in exchange for phasing out its research whale hunt in the Antarctic Ocean.

Japan quickly said that wasn't good enough.

"We cannot accept a proposal that discontinues our research hunting," Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Shigeru Ishiba told reporters.

The world body, which regulated the hunting of many species of whales, has been paralyzed by a clash between pro- and anti-whaling countries.

Japan hunts whales under a program allowed by international rules, but opponents say the research expeditions are a cover for commercial whaling, which was banned in 1986. Japan's whaling fleet, currently in the Antarctic Ocean, plans to harvest up to 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales this season.

On Monday, Japanese whalers blasted conservationists with a water cannon and hurled hunks of metal and golf balls at them in a clash in the icy Antarctic waters, according to a conservationist group's leader.

Two members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society were lightly injured in the early morning fracas in seas about 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) southeast of the Australian state of Tasmania, said Paul Watson. A spokesman for the whalers said he had no information on the claims.

According to the IWC proposal, Japan could hunt minke whales at four coastal areas for five years. The hunts would have to be confined to day-trips with no more than five vessels, and all catches would be consumed locally.

In exchange, the proposal calls for a phase-out of hunting minke whales in the Southern Ocean and an end to the hunt of humpback or fin whales there. The proposal will be discussed at the IWC's meeting next month in Rome.

"If this is a move toward ending research whaling, then it could be a major step forward," said Wakao Hanaoka, an activist with the environmental group Greenpeace. "But there are many uncertain points. ... It's too early to welcome the proposal."

Japan has hunted whales for hundreds of years, and the meat is a sentimental favorite of people who lived through the lean postwar years, when whale was the chief source of protein because Japan couldn't afford pork or beef. Whale was a common family dish, and many schoolchildren ate it every day.

It is still easily found in restaurants and canned in supermarkets, but is not a part of a typical home-cooked meal.

Japan has in the past threatened to leave the IWC if the commercial whaling ban is not lifted, and has strongly lobbied for an end to the moratorium.

Iceland resumed commercial whaling in 2006 and is one of only two countries, along with Norway, to authorize fishermen to hunt whales to sell for their meat. Neither country recognizes IWC rules.