Fact check: how does Japan compare with other whaling nations?

Updated

Japan has announced it will return to Antarctic waters to conduct a research program, after pledging in 2014 not to continue whaling in the region following a ruling from the International Court of Justice that its "scientific" program was illegal.

Australia brought the successful action challenging Japan, but the whaling nation has made a new application to the International Whaling Commission to continue to hunt in 2015.

Defending the program after the 2014 ICJ ruling, a spokesman for the Japanese delegation to the court said many other countries continue to hunt and kill whales.

"It's not only Japan that is engaged in whaling. It's almost nearly 10 countries in the world, including the United States, Canada, Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Russia among others," Nori Shikata told ABC radio's AM program.

ABC Fact Check investigates which countries are whaling.

The claim: Nori Shikata says almost 10 countries, including the US, Canada, Norway, Iceland, Denmark and Russia engage in whaling.

Nori Shikata says almost 10 countries, including the US, Canada, Norway, Iceland, Denmark and Russia engage in whaling. The verdict: There are at least 10 countries that undertake some kind of whaling activity. But Japan is the only one with a program that goes beyond its own territorial and economic boundaries. Japan's program is also the largest and covers more ocean than any other program.

Commercial whaling

The International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling was introduced in 1946 after centuries of commercial whaling around the world sparked fears of widespread extinction.

Initially, the convention - enforced through the International Whaling Commission, of which there are 88 member nations - set limits on the number of whales permitted to be killed each year. In 1985 the commission introduced a moratorium on commercial whaling applicable from the beginning of the 1985-86 season.

Since then just a handful of countries have continued to hunt and kill whales for commercial purposes. They do so under objection to the moratorium.

In the 1980s the then USSR, Japan and Norway refused to honour the moratorium and continued with commercial whaling. Today commercial whaling is conducted by Norway, which has consistently objected to the moratorium since its introduction, and Iceland, which initially conducted a scientific program following the introduction of the moratorium but has since returned to commercial whaling. Both countries conduct whaling only in their own exclusive economic zone, not in international waters or the territory of other nations.

Between 1985 and 2012 more than 22,000 whales were killed by objecting countries as part of their commercial programs. Of those, over 10,000 were taken by Norway and more than 5,000 were taken by Japan, before it ceased commercial whaling in 1988.

Scientific whaling

Under the convention countries are allowed to conduct whaling that meets a scientific purpose. The clause that allows this is very broad, and enables a country to issue its own permits for scientific whaling.

"Any contracting government may grant to any of its nationals a special permit authorising that national to kill, take and treat whales for purposes of scientific research subject to such restrictions as to number and subject to such other conditions as the contracting government thinks fit, and the killing, taking, and treating of whales in accordance with the provisions of this article shall be exempt from the operation of this convention," it says.

Japan began its scientific whaling program in 1993 and has conducted four separate operations since.

Iceland conducted a scientific whaling program between 2003 and 2007, killing 200 minke whales. Iceland then recommenced commercial whaling under objection to the moratorium. In 2012, Iceland killed 52 whales as part of its commercial program.

Norway and South Korea have also conducted scientific whaling programs at different times since the moratorium began in 1985.

Between 1985 and 2012 more than 15,500 whales were killed through scientific programs, more than 14,600 of those by Japan - the largest whale take of any nation since the moratorium began.

Aboriginal subsistence whaling and other whaling

A small number of countries with indigenous populations claim the hunting and killing of whales is integral to their culture. Whaling that the IWC considers "aboriginal subsistence whaling" is not subject to the moratorium.

The IWC allows Denmark (including Greenland), Russia, the United States and the Caribbean nation St Vincent and the Grenadines to conduct aboriginal subsistence whaling. The IWC says "it is the responsibility of national governments to provide the commission with evidence of the cultural and subsistence needs of their people".

Greenland, for example, is permitted to hunt bowhead, minke, humpback and fin whales claiming a cultural connection. "The whale products are distributed within the hunter families, and some of it is also legally sold on the local open markets. Furthermore a smaller part of the hunt is processed, according to EU veterinary standards, in two localities in Greenland, in order to cover the needs of those local communities, not having access to their own whaling vessel or those communities having a meat deficit. No whale products are exported out of the Kingdom," the Greenland ministry of Fisheries, Hunting and Agriculture says.

Between 1985 and 2012 over 9,300 whales have been killed under this exemption to the moratorium.

There are also countries that are not members of the IWC that conduct whaling in line with cultural practices.

Canadian Inuit communities hunt bow and beluga whales for food. "These populations have suffered from past commercial hunting for their skin and oil. Presently, they are taken only for food by the Inuit," the Canadian government's Department of Fisheries and Oceans says of beluga. Beluga whales are not covered by the IWC, as they are classed as small cetaceans. In 2011, Canadian Inuits killed three bow whales.

Indonesia is also home to communities that continue to hunt and kill whales for local consumption. According to Indonesia's tourism website, between 15 and 20 sperm whales are killed during their annual migration.

And in South Korea - a member of the IWC with a ban on whaling - 21 whales were killed illegally in 2011.

Japan's whaling program

Japan conducts what it says are scientific whaling programs in the northern and southern hemispheres. It is the Antarctic program that was ruled illegal by the International Court of Justice in March. Japan is still able to carry out its scientific program in the North Pacific ocean, but is not allowed to hunt and kill whales using the JARPA II scientific program in southern waters anymore.

JARPA II commenced in 2005. Over the life of the program, Japan has killed thousands of whales - including around 3,600 minke whales, the most commonly caught across whaling programs.

The ICJ's ruling stopping Japan from continuing with its Antarctic whaling program found the killing of whales through the program was not necessarily scientific.

"In the Court's view, Japan's continued reliance on the first two JARPA II objectives to justify the target sample sizes, despite the discrepancy between the actual take and those targets, coupled with its statement that JARPA II can obtain meaningful scientific results based on a far more limited actual take, cast further doubt on the characterisation of JARPA II as a program for purposes of scientific research," the ICJ ruling says.

Under JARPA II, Japan also has the highest quota for killing whales of any whaling program in the world. The annual quota for minke is 850. For fin and humpback it is 50 each, but Japan does not kill the full quota every year.

The permit for JARPA II also allows Japan to process and sell any whale meat incidental to the killing of whales for scientific purpose.

The verdict

Currently only Norway and Iceland conduct commercial whaling activities, but under IWC regulations four other countries have aboriginal subsistence whaling exemptions. Indonesia and Canada, who are not members of the IWC, also allow some whaling for cultural reasons and South Korea has recent infractions for illegal whaling.

All in all there are at least 10 countries that undertake some kind of whaling activity. But Japan is the only one with a program that goes beyond its own territorial and economic boundaries.

Mr Shikata is right when he says "nearly 10 countries in the world" aside from Japan conduct whaling, but Japan's program is the largest and covers more ocean than any other program.

It is not comparing like with like to equate aboriginal subsistence whaling, or Iceland's small commercial program, with the much larger commercial program of Norway or the scientific programs of Japan.

Mr Shikata's claim is spin.

Sources

Topics: whaling, mammals---whales, environment, international-law, world-politics, animal-science, conservation, federal-government, australia

First posted