Japan announced Dec. 26 that it is leaving the International Whaling Commission, which it’s been a part of since 1951, to resume commercial hunts for the animals, but said it would no longer go to the Antarctic.
“After the withdrawal comes into effect on June 30, Japan will conduct commercial whaling within Japan’s territorial sea and its exclusive economic zone,” Yoshihide Suga, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, said.
The IWC was established in 1946 to govern the conduct of whaling worldwide, ensuring proper conservation of whale stocks, and currently has 88 member nations including the US, UK and Australia. Although its global moratorium on whale hunting has been in place since 1986, Japan has been able to find loopholes in the agreement, switching to what it calls research as the IWC allows for hunts if the goal is scientific research.
Japan switched to research whaling after the IWC imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling in the 1980s, and claims that stocks have now recovered enough to resume commercial hunts.
The country has since operated its scientific whaling program since 1985, hunting in Antarctic waters that saw 333 minke whales killed over the 2017-2018 season, according to IWC. Nearly 2,000 whales have been killed in the Antarctic since 2009 under a special permit granted by the IWC for research purposes.
By: Maytinee Kramer
