The recent clash between a Japanese whaling ship and the Ady Gil, a small craft deployed by the Sea Sheppard, highlights the controversy over illegal and questionable whaling practices.Since 1986, there has been a moratorium on commercial whaling. The idea was to allow whale species a chance to recover from the devastating effects of mass whaling all around the world. Most countries have adhered to the moratorium, but some have been aggressive in seeking ways around it.
Japan and Norway, for example, have continued whaling operations. They have found loopholes in the moratorium that allow whaling under the guise of “research.” Between the two countries, Japan is by far the most aggressive.
Japan kills over 1,000 whales annually under their JApanese whale Research Program in the Antarctic (JARPA).
But many people have seen through Japan’s flimsy attempt at disguising whaling as “research.” In 2007, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) became alarmed at Japan’s whaling activities in the Southern Ocean, which had been previously declared a whale sanctuary.The IWC issued this resolution:
Resolution 2007-1
RESOLUTION ON JARPA
WHEREAS paragraph 7(b) of the Schedule establishes a sanctuary in the Southern Ocean;
RECALLING that the Commission has repeatedly requested Contracting Parties to refrain from issuing special permits for research involving the killing of whales within the Southern Ocean Sanctuary, has expressed deep concern at continuing lethal research within the Southern Ocean Sanctuary, and has also recommended that scientific research involving the killing of cetaceans should only be permitted where critically important research needs are addressed;
CONSCIOUS that the Scientific Committee last year convened a workshop to analyze the results of JARPA 1, which is reported in SC/59/REP 1;
NOTING that the Workshop agreed that none of the goals of JARPA 1 had been reached, and that the results of the JARPA 1 programme are not required for management under the RMP;
FURTHER NOTING that the Government of Japan has authorised a new special permit programme in the Antarctic, JARPA II, in which the take of minke whales has been more than doubled, and fin whales and humpback whales have been added to the list of targeted species;
CONCERNED that fin whales in the Southern Hemisphere are currently classified as endangered, and that humpback whales in the JARPA II research area may include individuals from depleted breeding populations overwintering in the waters of certain Pacific Islands;
CONVINCED that the aims of JARPA II do not address critically important research needs;
NOW THEREFORE THE COMMISSION CALLS UPON the Government of Japan to address the 31 recommendations listed in Appendix 4 of Annex O of the Scientific Committee report relating to the December 2006 review of the JARPA I programme to the satisfaction of the Scientific Committee;
FURTHER CALLS UPON the Government of Japan to suspend indefinitely the lethal aspects of JARPA II conducted within the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.
The key words to this resolution are: “Convinced that the aims of JARPA II do not address critically important research needs.” In bureaucratic-speak, that’s about as strong as language can get when calling a country a liar.
Yet, without a means to enforce the resolution, the ICW and the rest of the world can do nothing about Japan’s illegal whaling. The Sea Sheppard has been harassing the Japanese whalers for years as they conduct their whaling operations, and the Ady Gil is just the latest in a long line of clashes. Many of these clashes have been documented on the Animal Planet show, Whale Wars.
