The public attitudes towards cetaceans have markedly changed in Japan last two decades. Although, whale products and whaling are still considered as a part of Japanese culture, many Japanese especially, young generations seem to be strongly interested in whale watching, dolphin swim, and conservation of cetaceans.
Because of these changes, both the public and media are getting aware of the stranding of cetaceans. The attempts to develop the cetacean stranding network have recently started by various kinds of groups including the National Science Museum. However, the actual efforts to manage cetaceans and other marine mammals are relatively awkward and disorganized.
This report summarizes the current status of the stranding of cetaceans from various aspects such as the kind species, the number of animals, the frequency of the incidents, the location, and the type of stranding. We realized that it is far too early to be able to develop any good working hypotheses on the tendency and significant human factors influencing on the stranding because of the lack of long term archive of the marine mammal stranding in general. However, we found two new concerns on the potential cause of stranding, one is sonar activity and the other is high speed vessel activities.
There are issues regarding to the development of the efficient cetacean stranding network. For example, Japanese government protects cetaceans as resources and regulates the number of catch, the type of catch and species. This may not fit well with the policy to save the life of animals. The settlement of the governmental law is necessary to treat live stranded animals without conflicts. To deal with these issues, we must start to hold the public hearing and organize the committee reflecting wide range opinions of various individuals.
