(Newswire.net — December 5, 2015) — Tuesday was the day when the whale hunt began. In the next three months more than 300 mink whales are going to be killed in the name of science, according to Japan’s Fisheries Agency. Japan says that this particular species of whale is not endangered and thus can be freely hunted. Japanese catch a certain number of mink whales every year in order to get information about their health and migration. However, conservationists from all over the world say this is nothing more than circumventing commercial whaling ban – when the ‘science’ finishes the job, whale remains are dismembered and sold in the fish markets.
International community is enraged with Japan because of its continuing whale hunting – Australia and New Zealand brought a case against Japan to United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ), which means fewer whales will be killed this year. The ICJ did not give outright ruling against scientific whaling, but did not support it either because it could not find any basis for it.
The International Whaling Commission considered whaling illegal and passed non-mandatory decision for Japan to reconsider whether this killing was really necessary for science. Despite the recommendation, Japan decided to carry on with its program.
“There is no need to kill whales in the name of the research. Non lethal research techniques are the most effective and efficient method of studying all cetaceans”.- said Greg Hunt, Australian environment minister.
There were mass whale killings in the past decades done by the Soviet Union. Soviets killed thousands of whales in the year when the international ban on commercial whaling was put into effect (1986), which marine biologists called one of the greatest crimes concerning the environment. That is partially why international community is very sensitive to whales and its relentless extermination, especially when it is done “in the name of science”.
At the time when the IWC saw findings that the population of humpback whales started to recover, it considered that maybe the moratorium on commercial whaling could be lifted. Minica Medina, the US representative to the IWC said:” Many whales are being killed and we want to save as many whales as possible”.
Whether the countries were for or against lifting of the moratorium, many whales were killed in Norway, Iceland and, of course, Japan over the years. Experts agree that introduction of strict quotas would prove wise in the matter of international whaling.