September 13, 2007
By DAVID GUTTENFELDER and JOSEPH COLEMAN, The Associated Press
Japan's defiant coastal whalers are struggling to preserve their centuries-old tradition -- and their livelihood -- despite a global whaling ban that has nearly driven them to extinction.
The International Whaling Commission imposed a ban on commercial whaling in 1986, though Japan still hunts nearly a thousand of the mammals on the high seas each year as part of an IWC-permitted scientific program.
Apart from the high-seas whalers, small-time coastal hunters are allowed to hunt certain varieties of whales and sell the meat at market. These hunters -- and the villagers who eat their catch -- say they have every right to continue the hunt, despite complaints from critics who call the practice barbaric.
In Japan's small whaling villages, times are hard. The Japanese have largely lost their appetite for whale meat, and coastal whalers say it's only a matter of time before they become a thing of the past.
To get a glimpse of what life and whaling are like in these villages, take a look at this slideshow from the towns of Wada and Taiji.
http://asap.ap.org/data/interactives/_news/whales/
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David Guttenfelder is the AP's chief Asia photographer, based in Tokyo. Joseph Coleman is the AP's bureau chief in Japan.
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