David @ Tokyo

Following on from my previous review of stockpile movements, I've added some more history as well as the most recent figures, for August. Figures for September should be out in another few weeks as well.

UPDATE 10/27: Just added some earlier months' data from 2005 into the table as well.

Month	Stockpile size at previous month end	Incoming stock	Outgoing stock	Stockpile size at current month end
Feb '05	3276	156	384	3048
Mar '05	3048	149	360	2837
Apr '05	2837	2050	348	4539
May '05	4539	109	318	4330
Jun '05	4330	145	383	4092
Jul '05	4092	879	745	4226
Aug '05	4226	1325	747	4804
Sep '05	4804	210	450	4564
Oct '05	4562	207	551	4220
Nov '05	4220	195	525	3890
Dec '05	3890	247	626	3511
January	3512	224	551	3185
February	3185	149	436	2898
March	2898	1539	827	3610
April	3610	2920	561	5969
May	5969	129	357	5741
June	5741	163	414	5490
July	5490	905	1723	4672
August	4672	1387	785	5274

This year's August movements are roughly the same as last year's.

The stockpile at the end of August this year is 400 tonnes larger than at the same time last year, despite the approximate doubling of the minke whale sample size from 400 +/- 10% to 850+/-10% in the Antarctic, and the addition of 10 fin whales (2nd largest species), with the commencement of the JARPA II research programme. This seems to indicate that consumption has increased this year (consistent with news reports from Japan) but perhaps hasn't kept pace with the increase in supply.

Geishoku Labo reported a few days back that from the 19th of October, Nikkoku Trust would commence sales of whale meat lunches on menus for business place lunch catering. Apparently Geishoku-labo has other customers also soon to introduce it as well.

Labels: stockpile figures, whale meat market, Whaling