Monaco - Japan yesterday offered to phase out its muchcriticised electric lance used to kill whales, in a proposal to the International Whaling Commission (IWC). The meeting was told that Japan has decided to use the rifle as the principal secondary killing method from 1988, except when difficulties arise in the availability of marksmen, after the animal has been disabled with explosives.
Use of the lance, consisting of two electrodes that electrocute a wounded but still living whale has been criticised for cruelty, in particular by New Zealand and animal rights groups.
Japan was also responding to criticism of its large-scale violations of a 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling in the guise of "scientific" whaling and of its ignoring a whale sanctuary established in Antarctica in 1994.