WASHINGTON, (L.A. Times) Japan has increased by roughly 30 per cent the number of whales it is allowing its hunters to kill this swummer inside a conservation zone around Antarctica. Its whaling fleet has permission to kill between 360 and 440 Minke whales.
The US President, Mr Bill Clinton, is expected to issue what aides have described as a strong complaint today. But, to the anger of envoronmentalists, he had decided not to impose trade sanctions on Japan, or even threaten such a step, White House officials said. The issue links three sensitive concerns within the White House - the environment, trade and politics - to America's often-difficult relationship with Japan.
The Commerce Department put the issue on Mr Clinton's agenda by deciding two months ago that Japan's whaling in the Southern Ocean diminished "the effectiveness of the International Whaling Commission conservation programs".
The dispute has put Mr Clinton on the spot politically. By not taking a harsher stand, he opens himself to criticism from environmentalists - a key element in the traditional Democratic coalition - who want sanctions imposed, and political opponents who say he has not been effective in trade disputes with Japan.
The restrictions on whaling in the zone, covering about 13 million square kilometres around Antarctica, protect more than 90 per cent of the world's whales, which feed in large numbers there. The sanctuary was approved by the International Whaling Commission in May 1994, with only Japan voting against it. It was created to give depleted whale populations a free zone where they could recover.
A Japanese embasy official specialising in fisheries issues, Mr Joji Morishita, said the Japanese Government had given its whaling fleet permission to kill between 360 and 440 Minke whales in the region this southern summer. Last year, he said, the quota was between 270 and 330 whales.
Mr Morishita said the harvest was permitted under International Whaling Commission regulations governing what is known as "scientific" whaling, conducted to allow research, and that it was necessary to kill the whales to determine their age, health and diet. Once a whale is killed for such purposes, he said, international regulations required that the meat be sold at market - where, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature, it can fetch as much as $594 a kilogram.
A US government trade expert said the White House did not have enough evidence to challenge Japan's claim that it was killing the whales for scientific purposes, rather than for sale.