Australia whale-watchers protest Japan's plans for humpbacks

An Australian petition of almost 40,000 signatures protesting Japan's plans to hunt humpback whales will be handed to the International Whaling Commission at its annual meeting in Alaska next week. The petition was compiled by Whale and Dolphin Watch Australia, a national association representing commercial whale-watching boat operators.

Southern humpbacks migrate north annually to Australian waters from the Antarctic Ocean, where Japan recently decided it would extend its whaling program to include taking 50 of the species. The decision has caused outrage among Australian whale-watching operators, who say it will destroy a tourism industry worth A$300 million (about $247 million) per year.

Tour operator Peter Lynch, who owns Blue Dolphin Marine Tours in the whale-watching town of Hervey Bay on the northeastern coast, said that humpbacks are considered the most outgoing whale species because of their willingness to swim close to boats.

"It is the humpbacks that make the whale-watching industry. They are very boat-friendly," Lynch said. "What we are most worried about in the whale-watching industry is that the Japanese whaling will cause a behavioral change in the humpbacks and they will no longer be willing to come near boats anymore."

Lynch and other whale-watch operators are calling on the Australian government to take a tougher stance than its previous diplomatic protests by imposing trade sanctions against Japan.

The resurgent opposition Australian Labor Party, which is leading in the polls, has declared it will take legal action against Japan for hunting in the protected waters of the Antarctic if it wins office in the upcoming national election, slated for November.

Over the weekend, the party also outlined a plan to use Australian navy ships to intercept Japanese whaling vessels in the Antarctic Ocean.

Australian Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull has attacked the plan, saying the action would amount to piracy. The government has also rejected the option of taking legal action against Japan.