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WHALES will receive their first protection under Japanese law if the
authorities in a remote group of islands approve a plan to set up a whale
sanctuary there.

The plan, devised by the Japanese arm of the World Wide Fund for Nature
(WWF), is to protect humpback whales off the Ogasawara Islands, 1200 kilometres
south of Tokyo. Japan is the world’s last major whaling nation.

Shigeki Komori of WWF Japan’s Nature Conservation Department estimates
that 500 humpbacks live around the Ogasawaras. He says that the whales are
now attracting so-called ‘watching tours’, which began in 1988. He is worried
by the lack of legal protection for the whales.

The Ogasawara government is considering stopping all boats from approaching
within 100 metres of a whale.