Japan wants end to ban on hunting of whales

A KEY meeting on whales opened to early confrontation yesterday, with Japan seeking an end to a 30-year moratorium on whale hunting and others proposing an Atlantic cetacean sanctuary.

While meeting host Slovenia urged compromise for the marine mammals’ sake, member states of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) cleaved almost immediately into historic pro- and anti-hunting factions.

“The moratorium on commercial whaling should and could be lifted on a stockby-stock basis based on sound scientific evidence,” Japan’s written opening statement to the commission’s 66th meeting said.

The commission’s advisory committee “had confirmed that certain stocks of whale species were recovered” which implied the ban was outdated, Japan argued.

One of the biggest disputes among the IWC’s 88 member countries is Japan’s yearly whale hunt in the name of science -- for which an exception exists under IWC rules – but which critics insist sustains Japan’s whaling industry.

The meat ends up on supermarket shelves and in restaurants, in line with an IWC stipulation that whales taken for science must be eaten.

The International Court of Justice ruled in 2014 that Japan was abusing the scientific exemption.

Tokyo cancelled its 2014-15 hunt, only to resume it the following year, killing an estimated 300-plus animals.

Japan opposes the creation of a South Atlantic whale sanctuary, a proposal of Argentina, Brazil, Gabon, South Africa and Uruguay which carries the backing of the European Union and others.

Japan, Norway and Iceland are traditionally in their own corner at the biennial IWC meetings, which seek to balance issues of national sovereignty, subsistence rights and culture with conservation.