NEW PLYMOUTH, N.Z. -- While continuing to kill whales this year inside the internationally-declared Antartic whale sanctuary, allegedly for "scientific" purposes, Japan now plans to extend its science program by firing harpoons carrying radio transmitters into dozens of blue whales, reports The Observer, a leading British newspaper.
Each harpoon will be connected to a football-sized electronic float containing a recorder, a radio transmitter and a small computer, the Observer report said.
Japan plans to launch a 50kg whale ecology observation satellite in 1997. The satellite will receive signals monitoring the animals' health indicators such as temperature and blood pressure, plus track the whales' numbers. Data will be automatically transmitted when the whale surfaces for air.
"We should gain a great deal of important scientific information from the project, but the days of doing research for its own sake have long gone. The results have a clear objective - to help Japan when it starts whale hunting again", Roy Gamble, secretary of the International Whaling Commission, told The Observer. Commercial whaling was outlawed in 1985. Conservationists say meat from whales killed for so-called scientific purposes is sold commercially.
Japan is not alone in what many see as a cynical misuse of science. Earlier this year, Norway announced plans to allow 2,600 baby seals to be killed for "scientific" purposes. Some of the pups were to be clubbed to death in the traditional way.
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