Why Japan persists in hunting whales (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

As the International Whaling Commission meets to search for common ground between pro- and anti-whaling nations, the BBC's Chris Hogg reports from a Japanese town showing no sign of giving up on its whale meat.

If you want to understand why the Japanese hunt whales, you need to travel to one of the handful of small coastal communities where they still take them from the sea, a place like Wada.
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Yoshinori Shoji is the town's whaler. He catches 14 whales every year.
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He says he accepts the argument that some species need to be protected to prevent them from dying out.
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But he believes minke whales are abundant, and does not see why others should be able to tell him what he can and cannot hunt off the coast of Japan.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7281989.stm

A long, fairly thoughtful article. Clearly, much of the problem lies in differing opinions as to what constitutes a 'sustainable' catch of wild animals whose numbers are not even all that certain, and how best to deal with that uncertainty.