Anti-whaling lobby rebuffs Japan

[frigidmagi]

BBC

Anti-whaling countries have rejected an offer which could have seen Japan scale back its Antarctic hunting programme.

Japan had said it would consider scrapping plans to include humpback whales in the catch.

In return it sought approval of its request for limited commercial hunting by four coastal communities.

But anti-whaling countries at the annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission rejected the move as "needless act of provocation".

The IWC meeting opened in Alaska on Monday.

Clear rejection

The proposed humpback hunt has been a major issue in anti-whaling countries, notably Australia and New Zealand which both run healthy whale-watching industries with humpbacks as their star turn.

The inclusion of the humpback whale is a highly provocative act

Malcolm Turnbull
Australian Environment Minister

Japan plans to add 50 humpbacks next season to its annual Antarctic hunt, which it runs under regulations permitting whaling for scientific research.

The hunt currently takes minke and fin whales.

Speaking to reporters immediately before the meeting opened, Japan's deputy whaling commissioner Joji Morishita stopped short of offering a formal deal, but hinted at progress behind the scenes.

"We are open-minded for dialogue (on the humpback question), and we might come up with a big package which will satisfy all members," he said.

"But we are very keen to see our small-type coastal whaling proposal progress."

This proposal would entitle four coastal communities to take a small number of minke whales. The same number of minkes would be deducted from the current self-awarded coastal scientific quota.

But the Japanese plan was rejected in no uncertain terms by an anti-whaling bloc including the US, the UK and Australia.

"The inclusion of the humpback whale is a highly provocative act," said Australia Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

"It is calculated... to undermine dramatically the standing, the affection, the relationship between the Australian and the Japanese people. It is a needless act of provocation."

The delegates said the Japanese plan amounted to commercial whaling, which has been banned for 21 years under a global IWC moratorium.

Problem quotas

Indigenous hunts appear likely to cause some major headaches on the meeting's second day. Aboriginal, or subsistence, permits are given to groups judged to have a strong whaling history and a need for whale meat. They are awarded in five-year blocs, and are up for review in Anchorage.




Guide to the Great Whales
Greenland wants to expand the scale of its indigenous hunt, and include humpbacks and bowhead whales for the first time. With much of the meat being sold, there are concerns that it is coming too close to being a commercial endeavour.

Russia also asked for additional quotas for its Chukotka region.

But the US is desperate to renew quotas for its own indigenous groups here in Alaska, and may find it politically difficult, with its anti-whaling allies, to oppose the Greenland bid.

"There's a lot of discussion going on with Greenland and others to see if we can reach some compromise that we could support," said US whaling commissioner Bill Hogarth.

"We realise it's important to Greenland, but you have to be careful of the species you take, and whether you have scientific justification," he told BBC News.

Latin American countries are said to be particularly riled by the bids, particularly as they feel that Russia and Denmark (which speaks for Greenland) have consistently opposed plans for a whale sanctuary in the south Atlantic.

Meeting of minds?

Last year the pro-whaling camp enjoyed its first triumph in 20 years with the passing, by a single vote, of a motion calling for the eventual resumption of commercial whaling.

The moratorium itself will not be lifted in the foreseeable future, as it would require a three-quarters majority of votes.


Some indigenous hunts may be too commercial, critics say
In any case, this year the balance of power has shifted, with new members such as Croatia, Cyprus, Ecuador, Greece and Slovenia weighing in on the anti-whaling side, against only Laos as a probable new pro-whaling country.

In recent years, the IWC has been riven by a fundamental divide between the two camps, its meetings marked by emotional and often aggressive language.

Preliminary exchanges here have been in a much more conciliatory spirit, with delegates on both sides talking of finding common ground.

But Japan will be tabling a strong resolution against the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which disrupted Japan's Antarctic hunt in the 2006-7 season, holing one vessel and engaging in what Mr Morishita called "very violent activities".

Oh... Fun.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Anti-whaling rant mode: On

What. The. Fuck. Scientific Research? What scientific research? There is NO research being done in Japan that requires the killing of a sentient creature. None. I have one stomach content study, fucking stomach content, they harpooned an animal potentially as intelligent as a child to death and identified it's stomach content before hacking it apart and selling it in their fish markets. (1) I also found another article on blubber distribution. another one on in vitro maturation of whale oocytes (yes, because they are such good model organisms for developmental biology), another one on bioaccumulation of pollutants in the flesh of whales in*snicker* Japanese fish markets. Another one on the use of line transect surveys to "estimate populations" taking into account theri surfacing and diving patterns (In other words, the effectiveness of folowing whales in a straight line, and predicting when and where they will surface so we can harpoon them. "Oh, and it just so happens to be useful in population estimates, right that down Mr. Takanura we will need it to justify our commercial fishery to IWC")

Another study on creating Minke whale chimeras... OK. When you can use whales to study development, you know you are using too fucking many. We have lab rats to study mammal development. We have quails, we have chickens... using whales is just fucking stupid. They are about the worst model organism you can have for developmental biology!

Another one on ovarian development in juvenile minke whales... I can tell it is commercial whaling because all the whales are taken in the antarctic, and the publishers are all japanese...

Yet another on histological examination of the long bones... yeah, they are getting desperate here...

One study on the surfacing intervals of Minke whales... yeah... they would know...

More on developmental biology

Oh, here is a gem. I will give you the title.
Validation of the Sperm Quality Analyzer and the Hypo-osmotic Swelling Test for Frozen-thawed Ram and Minke Whale (Balaenoptera bonarensis) Spermatozoa

Yes. They are testing the validity of a test to measure sperm quality by comparing male sheep...and whales

God there is more... DO I really need to go into more detail as to how asinine these papers are?

The Japanese government and INDUSTRY groups does not recognize the moratorium on commercial whaling to be grounded on scientific evidence (the scientific community says differently) in that they did not believe that whale populations had not dropped so low as to no longer be commercially exploitable. The japanese population swallowed this bullshit in a nationalistic manner (2) This is when they started their "scientific" whaling program. They did this right after "accepting" the moratorium in conjunction with the whaling industry. (2) With the purpose of studying "age specific natural mortality" I will give you all a hint. Killing the whales is not necessary for this. Unless harpooning the whales is a way of controlling the god damn variables.

(1) HIROTO MURASE, TSUTOMU TAMURA, HIROSHI KIWADA, YOSHIHIRO FUJISE, HIKARU WATANABE, HIROSHI OHIZUMI, SHIROH YONEZAKI, HIROSHI OKAMURA, SHIGEYUKI KAWAHARA (2007)
Prey selection of common minke (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) and Bryde's (Balaenoptera edeni) whales in the western North Pacific in 2000 and 2001
Fisheries Oceanography 16 (2), 186–201.

(2)Toshio Kasuya, Japanese Whaling and other Cetacean Fisheries, Env Sci Pollut Res 14 (1) 39 – 48 (2007)

[LadyTevar]

I was just about to ask what Scientific Studies they'd actually published, and how many whales were killed for this knowledge.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Tens of thousands... lets see, I have their quotas right here...Minke whales...18 thousand... they take between 12 and 29 thousand though... "research" is unregulated by the commission.

[Shark Bait]

What is more disturbing is that the UN bought this line of BS in the first place, and continued to for quite some time. However, on a side note CT I understand your outrage, I've felt the same way since I was 7 or so and decided that i wanted to be a marine biologist. But the Minke whale is not sentient, the octopus is closer to being sentient than the minke whale is and I've probably eaten more of those in my life than the rest of the board put together (it was my introduction to completely solid food).

[Comrade Tortoise]

I am using the word for the sake of convenience. I am aware, as we have discussed, that the term is not technically correct (partly because the term is highly subjective and has no good technical definition)

I would also argue that social intelligence should also have a place in the definition at least as it applies to ethics, but that is an argument for another thread.