Japanese fleet to kill 333 whales for ‘ research’
Japan’s whaling fleet will set out Tuesday on a threemonth hunt for minke whales.
The Japanese government argues this hunt — which will kill 333 whales, about a third of what the country used to kill — is being done in the name of scientific research. But the UN’s International Court of Justice has deemed the “scientific” program to be anything but.
Most of the whales won’t end up in laboratories but on dinner plates. Japanese officials claim the specimens will be used to study the health and migration patterns of minke whales, but some argue that these research vessels have never been anything but a way around commercial whaling bans imposed in 1986.
Today, Japan is the only country that practices whaling in international waters.
A panel set up by the International Whaling Commission asked this year that Japan go back to the drawing board on its whaling plans. A group of 44 scientists from 18 countries signed a statement arguing against the scientific validity of the killings. But Japan will go ahead with the controversial move that is angering many conservationists.
“We do not accept in any way, shape or form the concept of killing whales for so- called ‘ scientific research,’” Australian environment minister Greg Hunt said in a statement. It was Australia that brought the ICJ case against Japan.
Hunt and his colleagues are far from satisfied. Australian officials may even send a Customs and Border Protection Service patrol boat to monitor the hunts for illegal behaviour.
“There is no need to kill whales in the name of research,” Hunt said. “Non- lethal research techniques are the most effective and efficient method of studying all cetaceans.”
Japanese officials don’t hide the fact the meat from these research animals is butchered and sold commercially.
But they argue that minke whales are abundant enough to be hunted sustainably.
Minke whales are indeed the most common baleen whales in the ocean, and they’re not endangered. But some conservationists point to a steady decline in the animal’s numbers over the course of the past few decades as a warning against even this “sustainable” whaling.
The IWC imposed a commercial ban on whaling in 1986, but Japan has continued to kill whales under an exemption for research.
Monday’s announcement came days after Japan submitted its final plan to the IWC.
The expedition will be the first since the ICJ ruled last year that the hunts were not truly scientific, forcing Tokyo to revise its Antarctic whaling plans. Last year, Japan did go to the Antarctic, but its research did not involve killing any whales.
We do not accept in any way, shape or form the concept of killing whales for so- called ‘ scientific research.