U.N. Court Orders Japan to Halt Whaling Off Antarctica
TOKYO
— The decision to ban Japan’s annual whaling drive off Antarctica,
handed down by the United Nations’ highest court on Monday, was a
hard-won victory for conservationists who long argued that Tokyo’s
whaling research was a cover for commercial whaling.
The
ruling by the International Court of Justice in The Hague halts a
Japanese program that has captured more than 10,000 minke and other
whales in the Southern Ocean each year since 1988 in the name of
biological research.
Japan
may not be ready to lay down its harpoons entirely. Though the ruling
is final, it allows the Japanese to continue to hunt whales under a
redesigned program, said Nanami Kurasawa, who heads a marine
conservation group in Tokyo.
And
the court’s decision does not affect smaller hunts that Japan carries
out in the northern Pacific, or coastal whaling carried out on a smaller
scale by local fishermen.
“It’s
an important decision, but it also leaves the Japanese government a lot
of leeway,” Ms. Kurasawa said. “The Japanese government could start
research whaling again but under a different name, and it would be out
of the ruling’s purview.”
Video|1:37
Credit Martijn Beekman/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
U.N. Court Orders Japan to Halt Whaling
Koji Tsuruoka, an official from Japan’s
Foreign Ministry, and Geert Vons, a representative of Sea Shepherd,
responded to the International Court of Justice’s order for Japan to
halt whaling practices.
In a 12-to-4 judgment, the court found that Japan was in breach of its international obligations
by catching and killing minke whales and issuing permits for hunting
humpback and fin whales within the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary,
established by the International Whaling Commission.
Reading
a summary of the judgment, the presiding judge, Peter Tomka of
Slovakia, said that the latest Japanese program, which was expanded
in 2005, had involved the killing of thousands of minke whales and a
number of fin whales, but that its “scientific output to date appears
limited.” The ruling suggested that Japan’s whaling hunt was based on
politics and logistics, rather than science.
Lawyers
attending the proceedings said there was a gasp among the audience when
Judge Tomka ordered Japan to immediately “revoke all whaling permits”
and not issue any new ones under the existing program.
“I
rarely heard such an unequivocal, strong ruling at this court,” said a
lawyer with long experience at the court who asked not to be named
because he is working on a case in progress.
A
Japanese foreign ministry spokesman, Noriyuki Shikata, was quoted in
news reports as telling reporters in The Hague that the country “regrets
and is deeply disappointed” by the decision.
But he also was quoted as saying that Japan respected the rule of law and would abide by the decision.
The
ruling drew praise from environmental groups, including the Sea
Shepherd Conservation Society, which has sent ships to the remote and
icy waters to block and harass Japan’s whaling fleet.
“We
are very happy with the backing of the International Court,” Geert
Vons, a representative of Sea Shepherd, said after leaving the
courtroom. “We had never expected such a strong ruling.”
Australia,
a former whaling country, brought the suit against Japan in 2010,
accusing the country of using a loophole to get around a 1986 worldwide
moratorium on commercial whaling.
Despite the moratorium, Japan has captured and killed more than 10,000 whales in what Tokyo describes as efforts to collect data to monitor the impact of whales on Japan’s fishing industry and to study the health and habitat of the whale population.
To pay for the government program, the meat from the culled whales is sold and makes its way to supermarkets, restaurants and schools.
Still,
Japan’s whaling program has struggled financially in recent years, as
more Japanese consumers turn up their noses at whale meat and as
environmental activists chasing whaling boats make the hunts more
difficult. Hunts in recent years have relied on public subsidies,
including money drawn from funds earmarked for Japan’s post-tsunami
reconstruction.
Some
critics said that Monday’s decision presented Japan with an opportunity
to bow out of a practice that has become a drain on its finances, as
well as a blow to its image abroad.
“This
might be a good time to quit,” said Toshio Kasuya, an early
collaborator on Japan’s research program who has since become one of its
harshest critics. From early on, it became clear to researchers that
the program did not prioritize scientific discovery, he said.
“The system is bankrupt,” Mr. Kasuya said.
Whaling
is defended by some Japanese, however, who feel unfairly singled out by
international criticism and who argue that the hunts are a Japanese
tradition. These supporters make little pretense that whaling is carried
out for science.
“Some
people eat beef, others eat whale. We should respect all cultures,”
said Komei Wani, who leads the Group to Preserve Whale Dietary Culture,
based in the whaling town of Shimonoseki. “As long as there are enough
whales to go around, why can’t we hunt a few?”
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