Japan has ignited a firestorm of criticism by launching a new round of “scientific” whaling, this time targeting ten endangered sperm and fifty Brydes (pronounced “Brutus”) whales in the North Pacific. Japan has ignored the International Whaling Commission’s condemnation of any expansion of its “research” whaling that now kills over 400 minke whales yearly in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary; on July 29, four whaling ships embarked on a deadly mission and have already killed Brydes, sperm and minke whales, working towards their gruesome goal of 160 dead whales this year. Taking advantage of a loophole in the IWC, Japan need only call its whaling “scientific” to be legal technically, even though the whale meat is sold for food. But the ruse fools few. Sanae Shida, a Greenpeace spokeswoman in Tokyo, said, “If you need to research African elephants, that doesn’t mean you kill and eat them.”

Protests have been lodged at the highest levels of government by Britain, the United States and New Zealand. US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright met with Japanese Foreign Minister Yohei Kono and asked him to either call back the ships or face economic sanctions. Japan responded belligerently, saying it has a right to kill the whales and that any sanctions would be in violation of the World Trade Organization (WTO).