STOPKILLINGWHALES

Scientific whaling is commercial whaling in disguise. In fact, the IWC has clearly stated it does not need the information from Japan obtained by killing whales and officially asked them to stop.

Despite repeated IWC objections, Japan has engaged in “scientific” whaling since 1987 by using loopholes in the treaty that governs the IWC. Japan claims that scientific whaling is necessary to determine if whales are hurting commercial fish stocks. Yet some of the whale species killed by Japan do not even eat fish!

Under IWC rules, any meat that results from research whaling must be used, leaving Japan free to sell whale meat in markets and upscale Japanese restaurants. Over two thousand tons of whale meat came back from the Antarctic last year, and they ended up on restaurant tables and store shelves, not labs.

Japan influences developing countries with fishery support to join the IWC and vote to overturn the global ban on whaling. Small island developing states and Lesser Developed Countries (LCDs) are Japan’s targets.

Japan’s effort to undermine an international regulatory commission through the purchase of country votes has made it impossible for other countries to pass further conservation measures through the IWC, such as the creation of a whale sanctuary in the south Pacific. With the recruitment of just a few more countries, Japan could assemble the simple majority it needs to overturn the whaling ban.

Whales and people both do better when these magnificent animals are viewed rather than hurt. When a whale is killed you make money for one day, but if you let it live you can make money from taking people out to watch it three times a day for 50 years.

In nations where whales are protected rather than hunted, such as Australia, whale watching is a sustainable and fast-growing industry. Australia’s whale watching industry contributed more than $270 million to its economy in 2003. In comparison, Japan’s whale meat industry fetches approximately $4 million a year with heavy government subsidies to the whale fleet and is not sustainable.

Yet, even if anti-whaling nations enforce the ban at the IWC, Japan will still be setting its harpoons for whales in Australian waters using the loophole. The fleet will keep on hunting in Antarctic waters claimed by Australia, where it has already taken hundreds of minke whales.

Only a worldwide outrage can stop them before humpbacks are added to their list.