Japan Tries to Sink Whale Sanctuary Plan

by Andrew Nette

The plan, which has won the island states' backing, is viewed by many experts as a crucial step to protecting the ocean's whale populations, many of whose species which have been hunted close to extinction.

But for Japan, which has opposed previous attempts to create whale sanctuaries, the South Pacific sanctuary would be yet another blow to its battered whaling industry, one of the last large-scale commercial whaling operations in the world.

The conflict is expected to heat up in the coming weeks. Japan's annual Antarctic whaling expedition, which arrived off Australia's coast last week, enroute to polar waters in time to take the industry's quota of 440 minke whales before the end of summer.

"The Japanese government so far seems to be the only country to oppose the plan," says Greenpeace's ocean campaigner, Denise Boyd. "Why? Because Japan wants to keep its whaling industry alive.

Australia's IWC representative, Howard Beasey, was unavailable for comment but was recently quoted in the media as acknowledging that Japanese opposition was causing difficulties for the plan.

The Australian initiative won the backing of South Pacific island states at the last South Pacific Forum meeting, held in Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia, in August.

The South Pacific is used by a variety of whale species for calving, calf rearing and mating, including the blue whale, one of the most endangered species.

Australian environment minister Robert Hill claimed at the time that the sanctuary was crucial to protect "whale populations, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere, (which) have been reduced to dangerously close to extinction."

Hill claimed the plan, which would not affect the existing traditional cultural uses of whale products in South Pacific nations, would also bring economic benefits in the form of increased tourism dollars from whale watching.

Although the planned boundaries have not yet been set, discussions around the idea have involved countries as far away as Palau in northern Micronesia and French Polynesia.

"The Japanese government is not only opposed to the South Pacific plan, but to all whale sanctuaries," says Boyd. "It is looking at the big picture, and sees that the more whale sanctuaries get up, the more isolated its whaling industry will be."

"In particular, if all of these sanctuaries get up and join with the Indian Ocean, that would basically mean that the entire Southern Hemisphere would be a whale sanctuary," she explains.

She claimed Japan had embarked on a strategy of attempting to "buy the votes" of the small IWC states in South Pacific and Caribbean states to get them to support Tokyo's opposition to the Australian plan, through financial aid packages and other "incentives" provided by the country's whaling industry.

At the last South Pacific Forum meeting, Japan also argued the sanctuary would be damaging for South Pacific states, by allowing whale numbers to get out of control, hence increasing competitions for fish resources. Experts say this argument is false.

Japan's refusal to recognize existing whale sanctuaries has further fueled the whaling controversy.

The Southern Ocean whale sanctuary, which completely surrounds Antarctica, was agreed upon by the IWC in 1994 by a vote of 23-1, with only Japan opposing the plan.

Japan's whaling industry sets itself a quota of 540 minke whales annually, 440 of which are taken from waters in the South Ocean sanctuary, and the remainder from the north Pacific.

The only other IWC member actively engaged in commercial whaling is Norway, which catches an estimated 600 whales in the North Sea every year.

Japan's reason for continuing its whaling industry, that its annual Southern Ocean whaling expedition is for scientific study, has been universally condemned as false.

Japan's fishing industry is no stranger to using science to cloak controversial commercial activities.

Earlier this year when an international regulatory body decided against increasing the quota for the critically endangered southern blue fin tuna, Japan announced a "scientific fishing" program and caught 1,400 tonnes of the fish in addition to its quota.

The most recent IWC meeting last year formally noted "the grave concerns of eminent members of the international scientific community over the continuation of lethal whale research programs," saying that the results of Japan's Antarctic program are not required for the management of whales.

"It is economic necessity, not scientific interest that has driven this return to the Antarctic," says Boyd. "It is to provide whale meat for the markets in Japan."

Japan's whaling industry sponsored its first annual whale meat tasting festival in northern Japan in November 1998. Organizers say that the meat from the festival came from minke whales, which according to the Japanese government are caught for "scientific" purposes then later sold to wholesalers.

Covert DNA testing of whale products on sale in Japan, and reported to the IWC, has uncovered meat not only from minke whales but also from protected species such as humpbacks, orcas and even the rare blue whale, critics say.

Boyd adds that Japan's whale industry stands to lose nearly $30 million if it does not catch any whales, after a year of heavy investment last year.

In 1998, the industry launched the first new whaler built by Japan in 26 years, an event described by the Japanese press as "a symbol for the reopening of whaling."