The beginning of the end for Japanese whaling?

A Japanese public prosecutor announced on 19 May that it was launching an investigation into allegations that workers on whaling ships are embezzling whale meat and selling it to restaurant owners.

Conservationists are daring to hope that the resulting domestic scandal could herald the end of Japan's "scientific" whaling programme.

The formal investigation follows on an undercover investigation which revealed the alleged embezzlement. The investigation was carried out by Greenpeace, who say the activities are a misuse of public funds as the meat is a by-product of publicly funded research.

Greenpeace was contacted by a former employee of Kyodo Senpaku, a for-profit company that carries out whaling for the Institute of Cetacean Research. Kyodo Senpaku receives government subsidies to kill a certain number of whales each year, so that the ICR can carry out its whale research.

The former employee, who has remained anonymous, told Greenpeace of a tacit agreement on board the Nisshin Maru, a Kyodo Senpaku-owned vessel, that the "production workers" who process the meat take home large amounts of it. The crew allegedly preserve the meat in salt and ship it home.

Greenpeace intercepted one of the boxes labelled "cardboard". Inside, they found clothes and 23.5 kilograms of salted whale meat known as unesu. Unesu is taken from the lower jaw to the belly of the whale and is a high-value cut used to make whale "bacon". Greenpeace estimates that the meat was worth between $1100 and $3500.