Regarding Mark Brazil's Oct. 15 article, "Let them eat whales!": The author over-emphasizes, I think, the contamination dangers of eating whale meat insofar as it comes from Antarctic minke whales, although specific and monitored identification is needed, which evidently is not done at present. This otherwise well-argued article is seriously deficient in not insisting that any and all unsubsidized whaling must be under international regulation of which the International Whaling Commission's adopted, but so far not implemented, Revised Management Procedure is the core.
Unfortunately, while Japan's whaling interests pay lip service to such regulation, they have long refused to accept the strong compliance rules that absolutely must go with any revised management scheme, including international inspectors of all operations and an internationally controlled and open DNA database of systematically taken meat samples.
The history of factory-ship whaling is strewn with little and great evasions of even minimal rules by all nations that have engaged in it. But the records of the IWC unfortunately show that Japan, more than any other nation, has opposed conservation measures and efforts toward sustainability far more often than any others from the moment the government joined the IWC after World War II.
So before we think of permitting unsubsidized factory-ship whaling to replace the present heavily subsidized "scientific-commercial" whaling, we should ask for clear evidence that the leopard really has changed its spots.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.