Posts Tagged ‘Scientific Whaling’
EU asks Japan to cancel whale hunt programme in Antarctica
A strongly worded letter from the EU Member States has requested that Japan immediately halts it´s research whaling programme in the Southern Ocean as there was no scientific justification for the slaughter. The scientific value of Japan’s “new” scientific whaling programme NEWREP-A, that has seen 333 minke whales killed in the 2015/16 season, had been…
Read MoreDay Three (Morning) of IWC 2016
This is not a full script, as whilst some comments are verbatim, others are paraphrased, but we endeavour to capture the essence of what was said. The morning shift So back to it, and the Chairman is asking for progress from drafting groups. Japan opened the meeting rather aggressively in the view of this observer,…
Read MoreAs Japan launches its new whaling programme, is the fleet sailing into new legal jeopardy?
Seemingly driven by spurious nationalistic pride and despite their failure to gain the support of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and, in contempt of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Japan’s Antarctic whaling fleet is leaving its homeport today, December 1st. But the fleet may not simply be sailing into the choppy waters of the…
Read MoreJapan rejects international law on whaling
Within only a few days of being elected to the United Nations Security Council, it has come to light that Japan has formally rejected the ICJ with respect to wildlife and natural resources, effectively placing itself outside of the same rules that bound most of the United Nations parties. The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that…
Read MoreThe Science of Whaling – bending science to fit the politics
As Japan’s whalers report their lowest kill of minke whales in years, Japanese Government scientists are today seeking to get the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to endorse their new proposal to kill hundreds of minke whales in the southern Ocean (sometimes abbreviated to NEWREP-A). The Japan Times is reporting that a whaling company employed by…
Read MoreNew Japanese whale hunting plan rejected by experts
Experts representing the International Whaling Commission (IWC – the organisation that regulates whale hunting) have rejected Japan’s latest plan to resume its so-called scientific whale hunts in the Southern Ocean. In March last year, the International Court of Justice (the highest court of the United Nations) banned Japanese scientific hunts in the Antarctic, criticising their scientific value.…
Read MoreShips leave Japanese port to kill whales in the name of science
Whaling ships in north-eastern Japan have left port to begin government-backed scientific whaling in coastal waters around the country. The four ships could kill up to 51 minke in the coming few weeks as part of a so-called ‘research’ programme in the north-western Pacific. The hunts will take place within an 80km radius from Ayukawa…
Read MoreJapan’s whalers get into the ’snake oil’ business
Every year we are bombarded with advertising campaigns for things such as washing powder that claim that their product is ‘brand new’. We all have suspicions that in reality these ‘new products’ are in fact, simply repackaged versions of the same product (with maybe a new variation on an ingredient) we used last year and…
Read MoreIWC passes Resolution to implement ICJ ruling and control future 'Article VIII' whaling
The IWC has today passed a resolution that seeks to control scientific whaling. The full text is below. After much efforts at reaching consensus, New Zealand had to press ahead and return to its earlier draft as below Whaling under Special Permit Submitted by New Zealand IWC/65/14 Rev1 Agenda item 15 Noting the judgment of March 31, 2014…
Read MoreJapan seeks to circumvent the IWC to achieve support for whaling
Japan is continuing a strategy of bypassing the International Whaling Commission (the international body the regulates whale hunting) by seeking to recruit scientific support for its commercial whaling activity in the Antarctic. Various news reports state that, on the 2nd Sept, Japan decided to reduce its Antarctic whaling programme to only hunt minke whales after…
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