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Japanese whalers at it again

The decision of Japanese whalers to slaughter over a thousand whales in the Antarctic in their latest season demonstrates deplorable contempt for the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling issued by the International Whaling Commission. This is not the first time Japan has brazenly launched its whaling campaign. This is ostensibly for ‘research’ but, occasionally, it has also cited ‘sovereign right’ and ‘cultural traditions.’ The whalers have outraged an already dismayed international community by adding to their list 50 endangered humpbacks, which are covered by a moratorium that dates back to 1963. An equal number of fin whales are to be killed besides the familiar quarry — the minke. Japan’s hunters have perversely exploited a loophole in the moratorium that allows killing for research. The beneficiary of the Japanese expeditions is the meat industry, not science. Unsurprisingly, some companies have even come up with exotic Asian curry recipes for whale this year. Norway and Iceland do not lag far behind in notorious whale hunting policies. An end to whaling is possible only if enforceable legal instruments that go beyond the moratorium are created. The IWC has no means to enforce even existing agreements. Conservation organisations such as Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd regularly engage in aggressive campaigns to confront whalers in the cold Antarctic waters and deflect the harpoons from their targets. The Labour victory in Australia has come as a shot in the arm for the conservationists, as the party is committed to greater whale protection. The Kevin Rudd government needs urgently to institute an Antarctic whale monitoring programme.

The slaughter of endangered animals on land is challenged, at least to an extent, by intensive monitoring. Because of their isolated habitat, whales do not enjoy even such protection. The protection of sea creatures, especially whales and dolphins, must be put on a stronger footing; they need desperately to be saved from ship strikes, pollution, hunting, and pressure from oil exploration activity. Conservationists have been demanding for many years that the IWC be upgraded into a protection agency with teeth. A strong conservation charter for the commission will stop Japan from attempting unethically to subvert the moratorium through offers of aid — bribes in all but name — to economically weak countries, in return for a vote to restore commercial whaling. Whales have been demonised in fictional accounts and hunted mercilessly for commerce. They are intelligent, gentle, and valuable members of global biodiversity. They need every possible protection from humankind.

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