Funding cuts could end whaling

A review of Japanese government spending could put an end to Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. Japans' new Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama, has recommended that funding for the Overseas Fishery Co-operation Foundation (OFCF) be cancelled after 2010.

The OFCF is the largest financer of the Tokyo-based Institute of Cetacean Research, (ICR) which runs the Japanese research whaling programme and Japan's new government is looking for ways to cut spending. The spending review committee has recommended that the OFCF have all of its funding revoked, except monies needed for loans in 2010. If the loans for whaling are revoked, it is unlikely the ICR can continue to operate. Reports claim that the Institute has failed to fully repay more than one billion yen in previous OFCF loans. The Japanese government issues research whaling permits to the ICRwhich, in turn, contracts a single whaling company, Kyodo Senpaku, to provide the vessels and crew. The ICR releases the products from the hunts twice a year to Kyodo Senpaku to sell at a price fixed by the ICR and Ministry of Fisheries to wholesalers, processors and local authorities. The primary purpose of the sale is to cover the costs of whaling and research but it doesn't.