Japan: The largest hunt of any whale, dolphin or porpoise species worldwide -

the Dall's porpose hunt - begins

Press Release: 31 October 2005

London; The 1st of November marks the start of the hand harpoon hunt of Dall's porpoises off the northeast coast of Japan, as it enters its 25th consecutive year as the largest cetacean (whale, dolphin and porpoise) kill in the world, stated the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA).

This year, Japan's Fisheries Agency has issued permits for the killing of 17,700 Dall's porpoises. This quota has been unaltered since 1993 and is based on questionable survey data more than ten years out of date.

Clare Perry, EIA Senior Campaigner, stated: "In the last quarter of a century more than 400,000 Dall's porpoises have been slaughtered by Japanese hunters. The population cannot sustain this scale of mortality. The hunters themselves have already admitted changing their hunting strategy to target mother and calf pairs, as they find it harder and harder to catch their quotas."

The hunt produces around 800 tonnes of meat annually which is primarily for human consumption. This vast quantity of meat far exceeds demand for actual porpoise meat, however retail surveys using DNA analysis have shown it to be falsely labelled and sold around Japan as 'whale meat', where it can fetch up to ten times the price of locally sold porpoise meat. The meat also contains dangerously high levels of pollutants, such as methylmercury, which is present at concentrations more than three times higher than the Japanese government's permitted level for human consumption.

EIA calls on the international community - governments, scientists and the public - to act now and put pressure on the Japanese government to stop the senseless slaughter of Dall's porpoises. The hunt is an environmental crime that threatens not only the Dall's porpoise populations in Japan, but the Japanese people that consume them.


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The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) is world's leading organisation dedicated to investigating and exposing environmental crime.

Source: Japan: The largest hunt of any whale, dolphin or porpoise species worldwide -

Link: Japan's Dall's porpoise hunt:
Link: Japan's whaling fleet sets sail
Link: Japanese Fleet Sets Out to Double Whale Catch


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