Wearing a whale-patterned jacket, shirt and tie, plus a whale-shaped hat, Hideki Tokoro shows off Japan’s new whaling ‘mothership’, the Kangei Maru – with cutting knives, butcher’s deck, freezers and all.
“(Whales) eat marine animals that other fish should feed on. They also compete with humans,” said Tokoro, the president of whaling company Kyodo Senpaku, citing an industry argument long rejected by conservationists.
“So we need to cull some whales and maintain the balance of the ecosystem. Our job, our mission, is to protect the rich ocean for the future,” he added, speaking to reporters invited to tour the Kangei Maru afterwards. was docked in Tokyo.
