Japan dolphins and other sea species 'face extinction'

The EIA says that dolphins are trapped and then sold to aquaria or slaughtered for consumption

Japan's hunting of dolphins, smaller whales and porpoises is threatening some species with extinction in its coastal waters, a report by a British environmental group has said.

The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) report says that more than a million such creatures have been killed in Japanese hunts in the past 70 years.

It says that each year thousands are killed despite conservation concerns.

The Japanese government has not commented on the report.

But it has consistently defended its coastal whaling as a longstanding tradition, a source of livelihood and necessary for scientific research.

The government has also argued that small cetaceans should be excluded from the International Convention on Whaling.

'Grave concerns'

The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Tokyo says that the Japanese practice of driving many dolphins and porpoises onto beaches to be slaughtered has drawn international condemnation.

Japanese hand-harpoon hunting vessel The EIA says that porpoises, dolphins and small whales are often chased until they become exhausted and within range of hand-held harpoons.

The EIA says that it is also unsustainable, and a danger to human health. Studies have found high levels of mercury and industrial chemicals like PCBs in dolphin and porpoise meat.