Japan to Resume Commercial Whaling, Defying International Ban “The declaration today is out of step with the international
th the international community, let
By Daniel Victor
Dec. 26, 2018
Japan said on Wednesday that it would withdraw from an international
agreement and resume commercial whaling, a defiant move to prop up an
industry that still has cultural significance there, despite plummeting demand
for whale meat.
Yoshihide Suga, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, said the country would leave
the International Whaling Commission, which established a moratorium on
hunting whales that took effect in 1986.
The international agreement never stopped Japanese whaling, because it
allowed the country to continue killing whales for scientific research while
selling the meat. Critics considered the research a sham, little more than a
cover for commercial whaling.
In recent years, Japan has had an annual quota in the Antarctic of 333 minke
whales, which in the 2017-18 hunting season included 122 pregnant females.
As part of its withdrawal from the international commission, Japan will stop
its annual hunts in the Antarctic and limit whalers to its own waters.
Commercial whaling will resume in July, Mr. Suga said.
Mr. Suga said the International Whaling Commission focused too much on
conservation and had failed to develop a sustainable whaling industry, which
is one of its stated goals.
“In its long history, Japan has used whales not only as a source of protein but
also for a variety of other purposes,” Mr. Suga said in a statement.
“Engagement in whaling has been supporting local communities, and thereby
developed the life and culture of using whales.”
Whaling has long been abhorred by conservationists trying to protect the
animals. Sam Annesley, the executive director of Greenpeace
Japan, condemned the government’s decision.
alone the protection needed to safeguard the future of our oceans and these
majestic creatures,” he said in a statement. “The government of Japan must
urgently act to conserve marine ecosystems, rather than resume commercial
whaling.”
Whale meat was once popular in Japan but is far less so now. Japanese people
ate more than 233,000 tons of whale meat in 1962, but just 3,000 tons in 2016,
according to government data. As of 2013, the industry employed fewer than
1,000 people, and in recent years it has been dependent on government
subsidies.
Still, defending the industry carries a nationalist appeal, with international
criticism of whaling sometimes seen as an imposition of Western values.
Leaders in Australia are “extremely disappointed” by Japan’s decision,
according to a joint statement by Marise Payne, the minister for foreign affairs,
and Melissa Price, the minister for the environment. Australia maintains a
sanctuary for whales, dolphins and porpoises that includes parts of the
Antarctic, and it has clashed with Japan over its annual hunts there.
“Australia remains resolutely opposed to all forms of commercial and so-
called ‘scientific’ whaling,” the ministers said. “We will continue to work
within the commission to uphold the global moratorium on commercial
whaling.”
But the ministers said they welcomed Japan’s exit from the Antarctic and the
Australian Whale Sanctuary, which they said “will finally be true sanctuaries
for all whales.”
From 2005 to 2017, Sea Shepherd, an environmentalist group, used its own
ships to try to interfere with Japan’s whaling in the Antarctic. As the Japanese
news media reported last week that a withdrawal from the whaling commission
was being considered, Paul Watson, Sea Shepherd’s founder, said in a
statement that he considered it good news. He said it would end Japan’s
activities in the Antarctic while making Sea Shepherd’s “objective of shutting
down these poachers much easier.”
“This means that Japan is now openly declaring their illegal whaling
activities,” he said. “No more pretense of research whaling. With this
announcement, Japan has declared themselves as a pirate whaling nation.”