Japan hints it may leave International Whaling Commission after attempt to resume commercial hunting voted down

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Australia has encouraged Japan to remain within the International Whaling Commission after the country’s attempt to lift a 33-year ban on commercial whaling failed to win enough votes.

Japan’s so-called “way forward” proposal for the IWC to start a “sustainable whaling” program lost by 41 votes to 27 on a tense final morning of the IWC meeting in Florianópolis, Brazil.

Japan's attempt to overturn commercial whaling ban fails Read more

Conservation groups praised Australia’s delegation for helping to safeguard the global whaling ban at what was seen as a “make-or-break” moment for whales.

As threats to whales from discarded fishing nets, ship strikes, climate change and fisheries by-catch had increased, adding commercial hunting was seen as a step too far for many countries.

Japan’s vice minister for fisheries, Masaaki Taniai, said after the country would now conduct a “fundamental reassessment of its membership of the IWC”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Members of the Japanese delegation at the meeting of the International Whaling Commission in Brazil. Photograph: Roberto Scola/EPA

Speaking to Guardian Australia moments after the meeting closed, Australia’s IWC commissioner Nick Gales said: “The fact that [Japan’s proposal] was set up to fail, then begs the question, was this really to construct a narrative to go back to their government to promote a position to depart from the IWC – but that’s speculation.

“Ultimately we had to ensure it did not proceed.”

He said allowing a restart of commercial whaling that would add to the multiple threats whales faced was “not something that we would do in a modern age – it’s a relic of the past”.

Among the countries voting to restart commercial whaling were Norway, Iceland, Cambodia, Tuvalu, Kiribati , Kenya, Cambodia and Morocco.

Japan has been pushing the IWC to take a management role for hunting whales. In the moments after the vote, Taniai said Japan had worked “sincerely” for 30 years and “explored every avenue to achieve reform” of the IWC.

Japan’s outrageous attempt to bring back commercial whaling has been condemned to history Tooni Mahto

“However, if scientific evidence and diversity are not respected and if commercial whaling based on science is completely denied, and if there is no possibility for the different positions and views to exist with mutual understanding and respect, then Japan will be pressed to undertake a fundamental reassessment of its position as a member of the IWC where every possible option will be scrutinised,” Taniai said.

Gales said: “Japan is an incredibly important member of the IWC and we would be encouraging them to keep putting their case and to work within the framework of the commission.”

Japan continues to hunt whales under a clause in the 1946 treaty that allows for whaling for scientific purposes.

Whaling vote: Australia tells Japan it has lost argument for killings Read more

But Gales said the commission had taken an important step in Brazil by adopting a formal view on the merits of Japan’s scientific whaling program.

“For the first time the IWC commission has said that Japan failed to demonstrate a need to kill whales for scientific purposes. That was an incredibly important step because that’s now a view within the commission.”

Gales, who has been attending IWC meetings since 1996, said the Florianópolis gathering was “probably the most demanding meeting I have attended”.

During a debate on Japan’s proposal on Thursday, Gales told the commission that commercial whaling around the global no longer had a “social licence” to operate.

Tooni Mahto, campaigns manager at the Australian Marine Conservation Society, said: “Australia stood tall for the whales at this IWC meeting. The Australian government led the charge to save the ban on whaling, and also increased pressure on Japan to cease its controversial ‘scientific whaling’ programs.

“This is a win for the whales. Japan’s outrageous attempt to bring back commercial whaling has been condemned to history.

“What hasn’t changed though, is Japan’s intention to go to the Southern Ocean and kill 333 minke whales as part of their whaling program.”

Play Video 2:59 Graphic Japanese whaling footage released after five-year legal battle – video

Alexia Wellbelove, of Humane Society International in Australia, said: “It’s clear from exchanges this week that those countries here fighting for the protection of whales are not prepared to have the IWC’s progressive conservation agenda held hostage to Japan’s unreasonable whaling demands.”

Matt Collis, director of international policy at the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said while Japan had threatened to leave the IWC before, “there is a feeling that this proposal was designed to fail and that could be used as a launch pad to make a more realistic threat”.

“Australia has done a fantastic job at this meeting and the intervention on Thursday really deflated any points [pro-whaling countries] were trying to make,” Collis said. “It was crucial in what unfolded since then. The Japanese response on the floor was underwhelming and you heard countries lining up behind Australia. That really helped to drive the message that there is not the will in the commission to go back to the dark days of commercial whaling.”

Collis also praised New Zealand and European Union nations, and said that the United States had also been “resolute” in opposing Japan’s proposal.

But he warned that pro-whaling countries had been “on a recruitment drive” and new IWC members São Tomé and Principe, and Liberia had both voted with Japan.

“That recruitment drive is going on, and that’s something conservation-minded countries will need to think about,” he said.

Japan’s proposal had overshadowed positive achievements at the meeting, such as resolutions to protect whales from other threats, including discarded fishing gear, fisheries by-catch and ship strikes.

Collis added: “There’s a lot of good work going, and that’s the future of the commission.”







