Photo/Illutration The Kangei Maru, the newly completed whaling mother ship, in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, on March 29 (Masayuki Shiraishi)

SHIMONOSEKI, Yamaguchi Prefecture--The Kangei Maru, a new whaling mother ship that will succeed the decommissioned Nisshin Maru, has been built here.

A signing ceremony for its delivery was held March 29 at Kyokuyo Shipyard Corp. in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture.

Earlier in the day, a consecration ceremony was held on the Kangei Maru’s bridge to pray for the safety of voyages and operations.

The ship’s first whaling expedition is scheduled for May off the Tohoku region.

“As a base, Shimonoseki will be sending out messages to broad audiences of the world about how good whale meat tastes,” said Shintaro Maeda, the city’s mayor, during a news conference following the signing ceremony.

Shimonoseki will be the home port for the Kangei Maru.

“We are determined to continue offshore, mother ship-type whaling forever,” said Hideki Tokoro, president of Kyodo Senpaku Co., the Tokyo-based whaling company that placed the order for the ship.

The Kangei Maru, which cost 7.5 billion yen ($50 million) to build, is an electric propulsion ship that is 112.6 meters long, 21 meters at its widest point, and 9,299 tons in gross tonnage, according to officials of Kyodo Senpaku and Kyokuyo Shipyard.

It has a capacity of 100 crew members and a cruising range of 13,000 kilometers, enough to reach the Antarctic Ocean.

The slipway on the Kangei Maru was designed with a slope angle of 18 degrees, gentler than on the predecessor ship, to allow large cetaceans weighing around 70 tons to be easily hauled aboard.

Atop the ship is a deck for a large drone that can find whales.

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