JAPAN EXPANDS ITS WHALE HUNT AND ADDS ENDANGERED WHALES.

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CAPE COD, Mass., Feb. 28 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ -- The Director General of the Japanese Institute of Cetacean Research, Dr. Seiji Ohsumi, announced today, to harsh global criticism, that Japan plans to expand its whaling program in the North Pacific to include the killing of 50 endangered sei whales, 100 minke whales, 50 Bryde's, and 10 sperm whales. The announcement drew an immediate reaction from conservation groups worldwide, including the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW -- http://www.ifaw.org), which called upon governments to take tough action against Japan for its misguided whaling program.

Ohsumi also announced that Japan plans to allow an additional 50 minke whales to be hunted this year by small boat, coastal whalers -- despite a decade of rulings by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) against such whaling.

Japan's announcement comes just two months before the annual meeting of the IWC, to be held this year on Japan's home-turf, in Shimonoseki, Japan. It is at this year's IWC meeting, that conservationists fear Japan may succeed in its annual bid to end the international moratorium on commercial whaling established in 1986.

"The Japanese Fisheries Ministry ...