-The town of Taiji plans to capture orcas in order to
secure financial resources. -

We are sending the latest unfortunate information on the capture of orcas.

Background:
The Taiji Whale Museum has been lending Coo, one of 2 orca survivors that were captured in 1997, to the Nagoya Port Aquarium since October 2003 under the guise of "breeding loans". The contract period is 5 years.

At the end of March, we learned that Taiji received an official letter asking for an extension of the loan period of Coo from Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium (PNPA).
We presume that members of the town's assembly committee, which is in charge of this matter, visited the PNPAto exchange their opinions because the town assembly's approval is necessary for the extension.

Taiji lent Coo to PNPA in the name of joint research in 2003 because Coo was seen as a financial resource to rescue the Whale Museum from financial difficulties.

The following might have been discussed:

1) The Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium and the Taiji Whale Museum will complete a summary research report on orcas from 1997 to 2007, at the end of October. They will publish the results to the authorities concerned.
Their aim is to receive permission to capture orcas from the Fishery Agency and hope to begin capture early next year.

2) The major topic of their joint research is of Coo's ovulation in the PNPA with regard to breeding.
PNPA thinks capturing orcas is a secure way of breeding them, which is the main theme of their research.
Taiji thinks the animals will be a significant financial resource for the town. As a result, the town and the aquarium found a common interest in the capture of orcas .

3) If they cannot receive permission to capture orcas easily they plan to pressure and lobby the Fishery Agency by encouraging senators to discuss the issue in the Diet, Japan's parliament.

4) In 2003 Taiji lent Coo to the PNPA in thename of "joint research", however, they actual reason they did so is because Coo is afinancial resource and could rescue the Whale museum from their financial difficulties. Currently ,they are actually considering other ways to raise money, such as lending or and selling the animals to other aquariums including ones in China.

If this comes to fruition, it would mean that the Japanese government will have given permission to capture orcas( killer whales )for a small party's interest, even though we do not even know the ecology of these rare animals.

In addition, it is not acceptable in the 21st century that an official town - even if it is small - captures rare wild animals for it's own private interests.

It is not only Taiji that is in critical financial difficulty in Japan's local areas. We believe that that temporary financial benefits expected from capturing orcas will be sustinable in the long term and will prevent the town from building a sound development in the end.

At the G8 conference which will be held in Japan next year, the conservation of Biological Diversity is supposed to be a significant issue along with the issue of global warming.
Capturing orcas ahead of the conference would be a huge blemish on Japan's record.
(Also, the Japanese government decided to host a conference on the Conservation of Biological Diversity (COP10) in 2010. The host nation will be chosen in 2008(COP9) in Germany.)
At this important conference, action plans intended to stop the loss of species, and reduce the speed of species extermination, by 2010 will be assessed.

Therefore Japan will be inevitably receive a lot of attention from around the world.
If Nagoya, where this conference will be held, promotes this reckless capture, it will be to Japan's shame.