SilentSeas.Org The truth about whaling in the 21st century

By cynically exploiting a legal loophole in the whaling convention that permits scientific research on whales, Japan has slaughtered over 6,000 whales since commercial whaling was banned in 1986. The meat and other products obtained from this 'research' is sold as before.

The International Whaling Commision has passed many condemnatory resolutions against Japan's lethal research, including at this year's annual meeting in Anchorage.

A review by IWC scientists has concluded that Japan's 'scientific' whaling has not achieved its stated objectives and is not necessary for whale management.

This winter Japan aims to kill endangered humpback whales for 'research' for the first time.

Japan is now killing around 1,200 whales each year for its bogus research programmes in Antarctica and the north Pacific.

Antarctic whaling peaked between the end of the 2nd World War and the mid-1960s when no less than 30,000 whales were killed each year. The whaling industry knew that whale stocks were being exterminated but attempts to regulate the slaughter ended in failure. Between the mid-1950s and late 1960s world catches peaked at almost 70,000 whales per year. In the mid-1970s Antarctic whaling quotas were around 10,000 whales per season but only Japanese and former Soviet whalers were still operating in the region. In 1985, the year before the International Whaling Commission (IWC) introduced an indefinite ban on all commercial whaling, Japanese and Soviet whalers in Antarctic waters slaughtered around 5,000 minke whales. Although Russia stopped commercial whaling in 1987, Japan has remained determined to continue.

In 1987, with the commercial whaling ban was in force, Japan submitted a research proposal to the IWC to kill 825 minke and 50 sperm whales each year. This plan was rejected as it failed to satisfy criteria for research outlined by the IWC's Scientific Committee. In fact, the Japanese plan was described as both scientifically flawed and unnecessary. Undeterred, the Japanese fleet sailed to Antarctica and killed 273 minke whales, unilaterally awarding themselves a quota of 300 whales. Since then, the IWC has passed eleven resolutions opposing Japan's ‘research’ whaling, the most recent at the IWC's annual meeting held in Berlin in 2003. The IWC has also urged member states to use non-lethal research techniques, as it is simply not necessary to kill whales in order to study them. In truth, Japanese ‘scientific’ whaling is merely a guise in order to continue commercial operations during the IWC ban.

Japan has slaughtered over 15,000 whales since the commercial whaling ban was introduced, over 10,000 of these animals for so-called “scientific research”. Most recently, Japan has included other species such as endangered Bryde’s, sei and sperm whales to its north-Pacific ‘scientific’ catch. They have announced that endangered humpback whales will be added to their Antarctic research this year. Obviously, these larger whales produce more meat , and profits, than the smaller minkes.

Over 1 million whales were slaughtered in the Antarctic last century, seriously depleting 7 of the 8 species of great whales found there. In 1989, the results of an IWC whale population survey in Antarctica revealed that blue and fin whales had been depleted by between 95-99% from whaling. The blue whale population was reduced to fewer than 1,000 from an estimated quarter-million animals. Blue whales were once the mainstay of the Antarctic whaling industry. Over 30,000 were killed in a single season in 1931 and the species has never recovered.

Along with the blue and fin whales, humpbacks, sei and sperm whales were also targeted, decimated and finally abandoned. Only the minke whale, at 10 metres long and around 6-8 tons, the smallest and least profitable species to hunt, is now left in numbers to be of economic interest to the whalers. However, recent evidence suggests that the Antarctic minkes have suffered a serious decline and this is a good reason to protect them from further exploitation. With ozone depletion and global warming threatening this region, the IWC’s decision to declare Antarctic waters a whale sanctuary in 1994 would seem entirely justified.

Apart from immediately after the 2nd World War, whale meat has never been important to the Japanese diet, contributing less than 1% of protein intake. In 1990, the meat from 330 minke whales killed for "research" was auctioned for £8 million, making the value of a single whale almost £25,000. However, the same whale meat is then resold as an expensive delicacy that can retail at anything up to and over £200 per lb. In 1997, around 2,000 tons of whale meat produced from the Antarctic hunt was wholesaled for 3.5 billion yen -about £20m - and expected to retail at around three times that figure. At such prices, a single whale can be valued at over £100,000!

That said, there is now little demand for whale meat for human consumption in Japan and as a result it is increasingly being used in the manufacture of pet food and fed to school children as part of their school lunches. This is an attempt to rekindle a taste for the meat in a younger generation. Sadly, these innocent children are being exposed to serious risk as the meat is contaminated with highly poisonous mercury and samples have tested as high as 200 times the safe limit set by the Japanese government.

Norway resumed commercial whaling in 1993 after switching to 'research' when the IWC ban on commercial whaling was introduced in 1986.

Norwegian whalers are aiming to kill 1,052 minke whales this year most of the animals killed will be the larger, and therefore more profitable, female minke whales, often pregnant.

The International Whaling Commission has called repeatedly on Norway to respect the whaling ban but every year the number of whales killed is increasing.

Norway claims whales must be culled as they are a threat to fishstocks. However, human over-fishing is to blame for dwindling stocks and this in turn is a threat to whales and the entire marine ecosystem.

As of January 2007, Icelandic whalers have killed 7 endangered fin whales and a minke whale. They plan to kill a further 2 fin and 69 minkes this year, for profit. Iceland, like Norway, claim whales must be culled because they eat fish. This is nonsense. Human over-fishing is destroying fish stocks, not whales.

Iceland was the first nation to begin a so-called ‘scientific’ whaling programme in 1986 defying the IWC whaling ban and selling or smuggling most of the meat to Japan. Japan of course, followed Iceland’s lead and began ‘scientific’ whaling in 1987. However, following sustained international pressure, including a boycott campaign against Icelandic fish products in the US, UK and Germany, Iceland stopped ‘scientific’ whaling in 1989 and walked out of the IWC in protest at the continuing moratorium in 1992.

The IWC has repeatedly passed resolutions condemning ‘scientific’ whaling and calling for whales to be studied by non-lethal means. . However, Iceland claims that whales are a threat to fish stocks when it is clear that human over-fishing is to blame for plumeting global fishstocks.

Iceland's whaling company owner has announced he intends to sell the whale meat to Japan. There is little demand for whale meat in Iceland. Meanwhile, Iceland has a rapidly growing whale-watching industry that clearly demonstrates that whales are worth far more alive than dead. However, the Icelandic authorities say they can have a watch-watching and a whaling industry. We have to convince them that they will lose more than can ever be gained by killing these whales.

The truth about whaling in the 21st Century......