Japan Says It Will Resume Whaling Off Antarctica
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 years hunt this month after the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that the hunts were in violation of Japans 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analysts, who had said Japan might use the international court ruling as a face-saving pretext for scrapping an outdated program that had become a diplomatic embarrassment while enjoying only limited support among the Japanese, who no longer eat much whale meat.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 governments 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
(2,083 posts)should send them an angry letter.
That'll show 'em.
Number9Dream
(1,560 posts)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
(35,955 posts)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
(949 posts)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
(50,528 posts)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
(53,866 posts)Number9Dream
(1,560 posts)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
(19,803 posts)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).
n2doc
(47,953 posts)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
(21,317 posts)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
(10,849 posts)be there.
http://www.seashepherd.org/
tabasco
(22,974 posts)If you don't rise up and stop your whalers from doing this, you're a bunch of worthless assholes.
bkanderson76
(266 posts)catchnrelease
(1,944 posts)I figured it was too good to be true that they would stop all together.
catbyte
(34,326 posts)Zorra
(27,670 posts)progressoid
(49,933 posts)MBS
(9,688 posts)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
(38,301 posts)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
(23,920 posts)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.
Response to 0rganism (Reply #18)
Jgarrick This message was self-deleted by its author.
Owl
(3,638 posts)Sunlei
(22,651 posts)flvegan
(64,404 posts)Again, thank God for Sea Shepherd.
groundloop
(11,513 posts)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
(10,056 posts)These whalers are psychotic.
OrwellwasRight
(5,170 posts)It's eating.
blackspade
(10,056 posts)Duppers
(28,117 posts)Whalers are missing the compassion gene.
ladjf
(17,320 posts)OrwellwasRight
(5,170 posts). . . 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
(11,843 posts)If only they were leaders in small electronics that could be used to monitor whales without killing them...
Larkspur
(12,804 posts)The Australians have a clear cut court ruling that would allow them to enforce it in the Antarctic Sanctuary with their Navy.