Japan Says It Will Resume Whaling Off Antarctica

[n2doc]

Source: NYT

TOKYO — In a move likely to bring renewed international criticism, Japan said Friday that it would resume its controversial research whaling in the Southern Ocean next year under a redesigned program that would address objections raised by an international court.

In a statement, Minister of Agriculture Yoshimasa Hayashi said Japan would submit a new plan for research whaling next fall to the International Whaling Commission that would allow it to restart its annual hunts in waters off Antarctica in 2015. Japan canceled this year’s hunt this month after the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that the hunts were in violation of Japan’s legal obligations under an international treaty banning commercial whaling.

In its ruling, the court questioned whether the program was really for research, pointing out that it had yielded few scientific results. Japan says its 26-year-old research program is needed to monitor recovering whale populations in the Southern Ocean, but opponents call it a crude cover for continued commercial whaling.

The decision announced on Friday runs against the predictions of some political analysts, who had said Japan might use the international court ruling as a face-saving pretext for scrapping an outdated program that had become a diplomatic embarrassment while enjoying only limited support among the Japanese, who no longer eat much whale meat. The plans for a redesign suggest that pro-whaling interests influenced the government’s decision, environmentalists said.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/19/world/asia/japan-says-it-will-resume-whaling-off-antarctica.html?ref=world&_r=0

[CFLDem]

1. Maybe the global community

should send them an angry letter.

That'll show 'em.

[Number9Dream]

2. Will the Australian Navy enforce the ban?

If Japan choses to continue whaling, any thoughts on whether Australia will send naval ships to stop poaching? Has Canberra said anything regarding enforcement?

[Violet_Crumble]

27. No. The current conservative govt opposed going to the ICJ...

Don't expect to hear trumpets. Australia has won a stunning victory over Japan in the international court, with every reason to expect the deeply unpopular pseudo-scientific whale hunt is at an end.

But Tony Abbott would never have taken this court action – and won't make a big noise about it.

To him, Labor's threat in 2010 to haul Japan to court was a needless way to antagonise ''our most important trading partner, a fellow democracy, an ally''. He even warned that any action beyond sending a patrol ship could be construed as ''war like''.

His claim then was overblown and not clearly expressed. The court action carried risks, but conservatives regularly emphasise the importance of values in foreign policy and on whaling, Australians are overwhelmingly opposed.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/dont-mention-the-whaling-tony-abbott-will-tread-carefully-on-his-trip-to-japan-20140401-35v9g.html#ixzz2zJfuvaeH

[cvoogt]

3. The Japanese are smart

I would think after so many years of 'research' they would have learned enough about whales to not need to kill them. Unless by 'research' they mean 'eat'.

[jmowreader]

11. They were always up front about this

The research was to prove whale stocks had recovered enough to allow Japan, whose whaling history is 500 years old because when you live on an island you notice one whale will feed two villages for a year, to resume low-level commercial whaling.

This won't be a popular sentiment, but right now minke whales (the ones the Japanese hunt) are well populated - common minke are Least Concern on the IUCN Red List and Antarctic minke are estimated at over half a million individuals by the International Whaling Commission. Their reproduction rate is good. On the other hand, bluefin tuna will probably go extinct within five to ten years. A minke probably has 10 tons of meat on it. Japan's entire bluefin demand could easily be replaced with 250 minkes; it wouldn't affect the survival of the minke whale but would do wonders for the survival of bluefins.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

12. you should post this as an op. nt

[Number9Dream]

13. Japanese "research" fails to meet "minimum standards for credible science."

snip> "21 prominent scientists, including 3 Nobel Prize winners, challenged the scientific credibility of Japan's whaling program. The scientists criticized the country's whaling program, ostensibly done as scientific research, as failing to meet "minimum standards for credible science." The open letter to the Japanese government was signed by marine biologists and distinguished scientists such as David Suzuki, Jared Diamond, Jane Lubchenco, Sylvia Earle, E.O. Wilson and Nobel laureates Sir Aaron Klug and Roger Guillemin.

http://www.commondreams.org/news2002/0520-02.htm

Actually, the ICUN lists the Antarctic Minke whale as "data deficient".

http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/2480/0

snip> "There is no agreement within the IWC regarding the number of whales in the world's oceans, particularly the Southern Ocean minke whale stocks, Japan's prime target. It is scientifically unsound to base any kind of hunt on essentially unknown population numbers."

http://www.acsonline.org/issues/whaling/index.html

[MFM008]

14. They use it as an excuse

more endangered whales such as humpbacks and seis DNA have been found in their stockpiles. This is just an excuse to keep their hand in whaling. NO species has recovered enough to support the insatiable asian market for everything that comes out of the sea. Within 50 years salt water fish may be gone. Lets see what they eat after its all gone. ( This goes for ALL over fishers of the sea, not just Asians).

[Blue_Tires]

17. +1

[n2doc]

21. Doesn't do a damn thing now

The Japanese have had a huge surplus in whale meat,

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/distaste-leaves-whale-meat-sales-in-japan-high-and-dry/story-fnb64oi6-1226396682864#mm-premium

and there are no signs of it 'replacing' bluefin Tuna. To suggest such a thing is ludicrous, it is like saying we can replace beef with nutria.

[daleo]

31. You could also substitute chicken for tuna

Japan has no food shortage, thus it is not necessary to kill and eat endangered species like bluefin tuna, nor is it necessary to kill and eat intelligent, likely sentient species like minke whales.

[roody]

4. Thank goodness Sea Shepherd will

be there.
http://www.seashepherd.org/

[tabasco]

5. Fuck you, Japan.

If you don't rise up and stop your whalers from doing this, you're a bunch of worthless assholes.

[bkanderson76]

6. Blubber chewing assholes.....leave the whale alone

[catchnrelease]

7. I was afraid of this

I figured it was too good to be true that they would stop all together.

[catbyte]

8. Bastards

[Zorra]

9. Irony: A tsunami smashes all their ships, and dolphins save the survivors. nt

[progressoid]

10. Yup. Expected that.

[MBS]

15. Despicable.

bizarre that they keep at this-- there's no way it could even be considered profitable (not to mention that there's no scientific merit to the operation, no matter what they claim)

[hunter]

16. Nationalism sucks. All of it.

Nations do stupid things for "pride." Even the U.S.A..

How difficult is it to walk away from fights not worth fighting?

So many can't do it.

[0rganism]

18. research = which kinds of sauce go best with whale flesh

extensive peer-reviewed investigations will be published concerning the use of varying concentrations of ginger, wasabi, and soy for preparation and distribution of whale meat under a variety of temperature and pressure conditions.

[Owl]

19. Must kill to "research". Assholes.

[Sunlei]

20. F- YOU JAPAN. killing whales, canning and eating them is not research!!

[flvegan]

22. Called it!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=768306

Again, thank God for Sea Shepherd.

[groundloop]

23. Why are they allowed to sell whale meat harvested for "science"?

If they were truly interested in "research" it seems that the international court wouldn't allow them to sell their catch. Maybe give it away for charity or something like that, but what they do is such a farce I'm amazed they can get away with it.

[blackspade]

24. How about just doing fucking research on live whales?

These whalers are psychotic.

[OrwellwasRight]

29. 'Cause it's not research.

It's eating.

[blackspade]

32. Exactly.

[Duppers]

25. not at all surprised.

Whalers are missing the compassion gene.

[ladjf]

28. Japan, you disappoint me by your continued pursuit of whales. nt

[OrwellwasRight]

30. And yet we are doing a trade deal with Japan . . .

. . . rather than trying to use our leverage to stop the whaling, the US govt is wasting it trying to lower the tariffs of rice, which by all rights should not be grown in the US -- we don't have the right climate for it. We grow it in the desert with subsidized water. What a waste!

[Thor_MN]

33. "needed to monitor recovering whale populations"

If only they were leaders in small electronics that could be used to monitor whales without killing them...

[Larkspur]

34. Will Australian Navy join Sea Shepherd in blocking these whalers?

The Australians have a clear cut court ruling that would allow them to enforce it in the Antarctic Sanctuary with their Navy.