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<DIV><FONT size=4>Forensic DNA blow to commercial whaling proposals</FONT>
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<DIV>by <A
href="http://www.newscientist.com/search?rbauthors=Andy+Coghlan"><B><FONT
color=#000000>Andy Coghlan</FONT></B></A> </DIV>
<DIV>14 April 2010</DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18770-forensic-dna-blow-to-commercial-whaling-proposals.html?DCMP=NLC-nletter&nsref=dn18770"><FONT
color=#000000>http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18770-forensic-dna-blow-to-commercial-whaling-proposals.html?DCMP=NLC-nletter&nsref=dn18770</FONT></A></DIV><!-- pgtop -->
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<P class=infuse>Proposals to resume commercial whaling have been dealt a blow by
DNA detective work showing that restaurants in the US and South Korea illegally
sold whale meat from Japan.</P>
<P class=infuse>In June, Japan, Iceland and Norway are expected to ask the
International Whaling Commission (IWC) for permission to resume commercial
whaling. They say they can prevent <A
href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13945-the-beginning-of-the-end-for-japanese-whaling.html">smuggling</A>
by matching the DNA of whale meat sold in markets to a register of all legally
caught whales. But all have refused to make their DNA registers public.</P>
<P class=infuse>To find out the origin of whale meat being sold outside Japan,
Scott Baker of Oregon State University in Corvallis and colleagues secretly took
samples from two restaurants, one in Santa Monica, California, and another in
Seoul, South Korea.</P>
<P class=infuse>They compared the DNA with that from samples bought in Japan,
and found that they came from the same animals – proving that meat from whales
hunted in Japan's scientific programme have been illegally sold abroad. The
findings resulted in police raids on the restaurants last month.</P>
<P class=infuse>Baker says the monitoring system can only work if Japan, Iceland
and Norway make their DNA registers publicly available, and hand them over to an
independent body like the IWC so routine checks can be carried out.</P>
<P class=infuse>Journal reference: <A
href="http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/" target=ns><I>Biology
Letters</I></A>, DOI:
10.1098/rsbl.2010.0239</P></DIV></DIV></DIV></FONT><BR>
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