Japan was ordered to halt its whaling program because the hunt can’t be justified for scientific research purposes, in a court ruling that marks the biggest boost to efforts to protect whales since a 1986 global moratorium on commercial harvests.
The International Court of Justice in The Hague said Japan’s open-ended program that allows for the killing of about 1,000 whales a year in the Southern Ocean must cease. Japan should not restart whaling unless it can prove the hunt is for scientific purposes and can’t be done by nonlethal means, the court said in a ruling Monday. In its suit against Japan, Australia said the research was a “ruse” to skirt the prohibition against commercial killing.
The court said Japan’s current research program, known as JARPA II, “can broadly be characterized as scientific research, though the evidence does not establish that the program’s design and implementation are reasonable in relation to achieving its stated objectives. The Court concludes that the special permits granted by Japan for the killing, taking and treating of whales in connection with JARPA II are not for purposes of scientific research.”
Koji Tsuruoka, a Foreign Ministry official who is the government’s representative in the case, said in a statement that Japan is “disappointed” but will “abide by the judgment of the court as a state that places great importance on the international legal order.” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said in a separate statement that Japan would consider how to proceed after carefully examining the verdict.
Japan has been active in using the scientific research provision of the international treaty on whaling to continue killing the marine mammals and retain a market for their meat. Japan has taken more than 13,000 whales since the start of the moratorium, saying its research can only be conducted by lethal means.
“It was no coincidence that Japan only started to issue special permits authorizing large-scale so-called ‘scientific whaling’ immediately after the moratorium on whaling for commercial purposes came into effect,” Australia said in its complaint. The permits “were but a ruse to enable the continuation of whaling by Japan.”
Japan killed almost 95 percent of the 14,410 whales hunted for research since the moratorium, the complaint said. In the 34 years before the moratorium, a total of 2,100 whales were killed for research, it said.
“The research take of whales is not a violation or an abuse of a loophole in the international convention,” Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a post on its website before the decision. “Quite the contrary, this is a legitimate right of the contracting party” under the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling.
In January, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy criticized the killing of bottlenose dolphins by Japan in an annual hunt off the coastal town of Taiji. “Deeply concerned by inhumaneness of drive-hunt dolphin killing,” Kennedy said in a Twitter post Jan. 18, referring to the method by which the animals are herded into a cove before being killed.
For many Japanese, consuming whale meat is part of their culture and no different from eating beef or pork.
“I can’t accept this verdict,” said Yutaka Sunaga, who runs the Kujiraya Taiju whale meat restaurant in Chiba, near Tokyo. “However you look at it, it’s unreasonable to say we can’t catch them. If you say you feel sorry for the whales, it’s the same when you eat other types of animals.”
With the advent of modern whaling techniques, such as explosive-tipped harpoons and factory ships, whaling nations were killing tens of thousands of the animals a year in the mid-20th century, pushing many species near extinction.Despite the moratorium, some species have struggled to recover. Unlike fish that can lay hundreds of eggs, whales are mammals that tend to birth a single calf every two to four years, with gestation periods lasting as long as 18 months.
Growing public awareness of the killing of whales helped fuel the modern environmental movement, with groups such as Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Fund and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society gaining international recognition.
The campaign to “Save the Whales” led to calls for a ban on whaling that gave rise to the passage of the moratorium by a majority of the nations of the International Whaling Commission.
Conservation groups say Japan has championed scientific whaling as a way to keep its industry alive and maintain a culture of eating whale meat until it can work with other nations to weaken or overturn the moratorium. Greenpeace estimates the Japanese government spends about $58 million annually on its whale hunt, recovering almost $48.5 million from the sale of meat. Falling demand in Japan has left the government with stockpiles of frozen meat, while still spending almost $10 million a year more than it recovers to subsidize the hunt.
“We are pleased that the ICJ clearly concluded the hunt cannot be justified for scientific research purposes as we have been insisting,” Greenpeace Japan’s Executive Director Junichi Sato said. “The Japanese government should stop the whale hunt near Antarctica and not seek any loopholes.”
Front Section, Pages 2 on 04/01/2014