By Lee Hyo-sik
Staff reporter
Two fishing boats have been detained for illegally hunting whales in waters off Ulsan, the southeastern coast of the country, raising nationwide attention for the need to protect the engendered species.
Ulsan Coast Guard said Sunday that police officers searched a 4.99-ton class unregistered gill netter that entered Onsan port late Saturday night and found dismembered parts of the whale, weighing nearly 1 ton. They took the 60-year old fishing boat's captain, identified only by his surname Lee, and the other crew members into custody and confiscated the entire catch.
The maritime police also chased another boat suspected of being engaged in the whale poaching and captured it in waters 6.4 kilometers off Onsan port.
``Upon a report from a nearby military post about possible illegal whaling, we immediately dispatched two patrol ships and were able to bring them into custody,'' an officer of the Ulsan Coast Guard said.
He said investigators are questioning Lee and the other crew members about the details of their illegal actions.
Poaching whales for commercial purposes is banned worldwide, with Korea being one of most stringent enforcers against the illegal hunting of the endangered species.
Unless whales are caught accidentally in fishing nets, which is the jackpot for a catcher, it is strictly prohibited to hunt them here for profit. But whale meat has been a local delicacy for those living in the southeastern part of the country for many years, and is sold at higher prices than ``hanwoo,'' Korea's homegrown beef.
Internationally, Japan is known as the largest consumer of whale meat, catching thousands of the endangered species each year also in the name of research. But Greenpeace and other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) argue that the world's second largest economy has been wiping out the global whale population, saying Japanese ships are catching whales, not for research purposes, but to meet the nation's demand for whale meat.
At a recent International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting, Australia and other western countries engaged in a war of words with Japan and others conducting commercial whaling.
The IWC has been pushing for an outright ban of whale poaching, while the latter has been insisting that the global community should respect each country's culinary traditions and allow controlled whaling.
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