Three-quarters of more than 1,200 tons of meat from whales hunted by Japan in the Northwest Pacific remain unsold, although the organizer began inviting bids for the meat last year, an activist group says.
The Institute of Cetacean Research has organized 13 rounds of public auctions since October, with 908.8 tons, or 75.0 percent of the 1,211.9 tons offered, going unsold, according to a report compiled by freelance journalist Junko Sakuma and released by the Iruka & Kujira (Dolphin & Whale) Action Network. Most of the meat is apparently from recent catches.
The ICR put the meat of minke, Bryde's and sei whales up for auction, aiming to increase consumption of whale meat and generate more sales to pay for the hunts. It will go back to negotiating sales on a one-to-one basis, as it did prior to 2011, by entrusting the task to Tokyo-based ship charterer Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha Ltd.