Japanese Whaling

Even before the Japanese started their latest round of so called “Scientific” whaling, I wanted to post something about it. However, in the back of my memory I recalled a fact that seemed to be overlooked in all the reports on whaling. Back in 1988 there was in fact no moratorium on whaling, I repeat there was no moratorium agreed. What in fact happened was that a quota of zero was agreed.

While this may appear to be a pedantic point, in terms of the legal validity of what the Japanese are and have been doing it is quite important. This was the aspect that I wanted to check, as while I am seen just as a blogger, I feel that its important that I, as a citizen journalist, apply the same rigorous standards to my postings as would any other publication. Therefore it took me some time to confirm what was actually agreed. While the effect of a zero quota has effectively been to stop commercial whaling, it did leave the back door open to the farce that is “Scientific” whaling.

The actions of the Japanese though, will finally close that loophole.

Even in the pro whaling nations like Norway and Iceland, while there is a macho nationalistic view in favour of still being allowed to kill whales, there is in fact no market for whale meat. Changing tastes and markets mean that in Norway and Iceland, the boats that are doing their “Scientific” whaling cant do it commercially. What that means is there is no market for the meat from the whales they catch scientifically. I told you it was a farce! Even the Norwegian fisheries minister agreed last year in an interview that fact.

Therefore we can all be grateful to the Australian government who filmed the barbaric killing of a mother and calf minke whale. This footage will be used in a legal challenge to the Japanese, and we all hope will stop whaling once and for all.

The irony is that had Japan not gone off and hunted whales in the Internationally protected area of Antarctica, then it was likely that a vote by the IWC (International Whaling Commission) would have restarted commercial whaling in coastal and territorial waters. The actions of the Japanese have now turned the world against them and commercial whaling.

Photo courtesy of Greenpeace