WHALE HUNTERS
Thursday 4 September 10.55pm-11.55pm
Last week Japan lost a vote to end a 15-year ban on commercial whaling at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) conference. The debate was acrimonious and the result delayed due to bitter arguments.
In Whale Hunters, producer Jeremy Bristow (Ape Hunters) takes a hard look at the whaling debate. The film examines how the Japanese are trying to persuade their own people and the rest of the world that it is a whaling nation despite a 15-year moratorium.
With unprecedented access to the men leading the campaign to re-establish commercial whaling in Japan, the documentary provides fascinating evidence of how politics and culture are as important to this debate as conservation concerns.
WHALE FACTS
The IWC moratorium on whale hunting was established in 1986. Since then Norway and Japan have continued to hunt whales.
Greenpeace estimate that more than 1.5 million whales were killed between 1925, when the first whaling factory ship was introduced, and 1975.
In 1994 the IWC established a whale sanctuary which permanently banned whaling in the waters around Antarctica.
The United States lists nine species of whales as endangered.
WHALES FAQ
Q&A on whales, whaling and conservation
