Japan may raise Antarctic whale meat prices

By Teruaki Ueno

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan may raise prices of whale meat to finance the next round of its annual Antarctic hunt after activists stopped it whaling fleet from killing their target number of animals, a government official said on Tuesday.

This season's hunt saw a series of skirmishes between the Japanese fleet and anti-whaling protesters. The fleet caught only 551 minke whales, compared with the planned catch of 850. No fin whales were caught, although it had set a target of 50, a Fisheries Ministry official said on Monday.

A Fisheries Agency official said the fleet's failure to meet its target could affect the overall financing of Japan's whaling program.

"Because we failed to meet the target, I believe the impact will be great," Fisheries Ministry official Takahide Naruko told reporters.

Asked whether prices of whale meat from the Antarctic would be raised to help finance the whale hunt in the next season, he said: "That is one of the options we can think of."

The whaling fleet's factory ship, the Nisshin Maru, returned to Tokyo port earlier on Tuesday and five other ships were set to return home soon.

An official of the Institute of Cetacean Research, which conducts annual whale hunt, said about 6.5 billion yen ($64.12 million) was spent for the whaling program in the year to September 2007, and about 5.2 billion yen was financed by selling the meat.

Greenpeace Japan, which carried out activities aimed at obstructing the hunt, condemned the plans to sell whale meat to fund more hunts.