IWC heaps pressure on Japan but rejects whale sanctuary bid

Why does Japan do this? It makes no sense

Why? That is Japan. They just don't want to stop whaling.

This is the "Japan that can say NO!". Ishihara must be proud.

It will be interesting to see how Japan adjusts its 'research' to justify killing commercial quantities of whales. It is true there are healthy populations of Minke whales in the southern ocean, but it wonder if those populations would still be healthy if Japan had been hunting thousands of them every year unhindered for the last 15 years. I also wonder how many thousands more tons of whale meat would be sitting in freezers around Japan.

Why does Japan do this? It makes no sense

It's very simple. Japan will never be told what to do by non-Japanese. If the rest of the world shut up about whaling and refused to make it an issue, Japan would quit whaling on purely economic grounds....

@onagagamo

i totally agree. japan has consistently shown the world that it will not cave in to international pressure or demands on most issues. "ganko" is a perfect term to describe their mentality.

You could be right, Onangagamo, which is all the reason the West should not suborn the IWC to their own ends.

Why is it called the IWC and not the IAWC? Seems to me that International Anti-Whaling would be a more fitting moniker for this organization. Banning whaling outright is all that the IWC does, not manage and govern it as identified in its charter.

Oh my Lord, a green light to funell large amounts of tax pays money into a failed industry and the pockets of retired beauracrats. Win Japan.

Greenland’s hunts are allowed under a special aboriginal subsistence dispensation, but conservationists fear much of the meat is actually being sold.

What do you want to do if it was not sold for food? Do you want to throw it back to sea for shark food?

Japan and other Whaling countries should accept organizations of advocates for Whales' objection to Whaling if they can prove they have Power of Attorney from Whales. Whales are endangered animals anymore. Peoples should be able to practice sustain Whales hunting for food in their own territory water and international water.

I don't think everyone will listen your anti Whaling stance whiles you're cutting Sheep head off for food. It's unreasonable stance as anti-Whaling nation because you don't eat Whale meat and then you're telling to other don't kill Whales for food. If you don't want to eat Whales meat and then that fine, don't eat it but don't denounce and against against peoples who eating Whale meat.

On Thursday, commission members also voted down a Japanese bid to be allowed to carry out small-scale commercial whaling off its own coast.

I wonder why, what was the problem with it?

There was widespread disappointment, however, at the failure of a proposal from Argentina, Brazil, South Africa and Uruguay, countries which depend on whale-watching tourist dollars, for the creation of a South Atlantic sanctuary.

Maybe it failed because the IWC refused to accept Japan's small-scale commercial whaling off its own coast?

“Such sanctuaries are important safe havens for whales in an increasingly threatened environment,” said the Humane Society International’s Rebecca Regnery.

I wonder what calling that environment a "sanctuary" was supposed to achieve anyway? Are they going to erect fences or something and keep boats out?

Greenland’s hunts are allowed under a special aboriginal subsistence dispensation, but conservationists fear much of the meat is actually being sold.

On the contrary, why shouldn't people allowed to use money as a medium of exchange for food?

This IWC organization is truly the most bizarre one that I read about in the news. It's like almost everything is absolutely the reverse of common sense.

It's very simple. Japan will never be told what to do by non-Japanese. If the rest of the world shut up about whaling and refused to make it an issue, Japan would quit whaling on purely economic grounds....

That wud be dangerous one only has to look at whats happened to tuna, eel, octopus, squid populations etc etc to see that Japan has great difficulty with the word conservation!

on the side of animal lovers, totally Japanese should stop catching whale. Human kind have destroyed environment where necessary for animals to live. we should not repeat this tragedy. I wonder that if Japanese have founded out any results worth killing thousands of whales per a year. To live with together with other animals, we should make compromise with those animals. so if Japanese government show practical statistic on whale survey, they continue the hunt to some extent.(but they should decrease the number)

GW, surely that's why there is an IWC to set catch limits for whales.

Can say I see Japan catching that many whales, anyhow.

It's very simple. Japan will never be told what to do by non-Japanese they were told exactly what to do at the end of WW2. its all about saving face which as we know in Japanese culture must be done at any cost.

Actually you need to get past the emotion and look at what the catch is about- mink whales- not endangered, not threatened, hundreds of thousands in the oceans. and yes the whaling commission has turned into another conservation organization - not really concerned about proper fishing but only about the latest turn of hype.

to all you M``ons who dont know yet... sheep, cows, pigs, chickens almost all forms of meat you find in supermarkets are farmed, in plentiful supply and have never been in danger of extinction, comparing whales to these forms of food is something an elemenetary school child would use as an argument. another juvenile excuse down the drain!!

wtfjapan, it seems minke whales are in plentiful supply too, so I don't think that makes comparison unreasonable. I'm not sure of the mathematical probability of minke whales going extinct, but even if it's higher than for farmed cows, I don't suspect it's all that high. And isn't guarding against overhunting why we have an IWC to set safe catch limits?

I'm surprised that Japan isn't even permitted to hunt whales in it's own waters. Unfortunately the article doesn't tell us why. Were they asking to catch 1000's?

praack,

All you have to look at is Japan's coasts, PLENTY of minke whales right out FRONT.

ZERO need to go off wasting taxes in the Antarctic!

@fxgai if you want to compare whale meat compare it with something that is similar, eg tuna, eel, octopus, squid. with the first two actually being farmed also. we all know the state of the populations of those fish. 70% of the worlds tuna is eaten by Japanese. now imagine if the Japanese had the same appetite for whale as they do other marine life. restarting commercial whaling will just give the J cronies an excuse to sell off the excess whale meat as dpet food or in school lunches.

ndwarigaSep. 19, 2014 - 08:07AM JST

Why does Japan do this? It makes no sense

The answer is in the article.

"The world's whale populations are able to handle sustainable whaling, especially the minke whale stocks in the Antarctic which the IWC has agreed are in good health. So we want our science and future science to underpin reliable management and catch quotas, and we expect the IWC to implement this."

I would rather want to know why NZ is doing this, except their strange love of whales.

Does anyone here still remember the promise that was made when the moratorium went into effect in 1986? Lets read the text of the promise that is quoted in the ICJ ruling. http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/148/18136.pdf

231 The moratorium on commercial whaling, paragraph 10 (e), provides:

"Notwithstanding the other provisions of paragraph 10, catch limits for the killing for commercial purposes of whales from all stocks for the 1986 coastal and the 1985/86 pelagic seasons and thereafter shall be zero. This provision will be kept under review, based upon the best scientific advice, and by 1990 at the latest the Commission will undertake a comprehensive assessment of the effects of this decision on whale stocks and consider modification of this provision and the establishment of other catch limits."

There are enough Minke whales for sustainable whaling. Just keep the promise.

wtfjapan,

imagine if the Japanese had the same appetite for whale as they do other marine life

Do they though?

restarting commercial whaling will just give the J cronies an excuse to sell off the excess whale meat as dpet food or in school lunches.

I don't get it. How would restarting "commercial" whaling give them an excuse to sell "excess" meat (what's stopping them from doing that now)?. And if there is excess meat then why is anyone worried about minke whales being over-caught in the first place? And if anyone is worried then isn't the solution for this useless IWC to be reformed into an organization that matches it's name, so that over-catching can't happen?

I just don't see how people come through all of these issues to an answer of "Japan should just stop whaling". Our answer for virtually everything else is not to prohibit an activity, but to regulate it or whatever. Why the hang up about "commercial" whaling in particular. Everything else is commercial too, yet we haven't banned human existence.

The way the IWC sessions are reported on Japanese TV are grating. Ever news is accompanied by remarks how whale is "traditional food" (which, funnily, nobody in my neighbourhood seems to eat), and inevitably followed by some visit to a whale serving restaurant, with the obligatoriy shouts of "oishii". Stupid! And I am not a Japan basher.

@fx my point was that Japan can hardly conserves stocks of Tuna, eel, octopus etc. how would you trust them to do it with whales, theyd hunt them close to extinction then pull back at the last breath hoping theyd survive, bit like whats happening to Bluefin Tuna