Japan forced to rethink on Antarctic whaling

[Saifullah Sani]

The International Court of Justice has ruled that Japan's Antarctic whaling program is not for scientific research. Japan says it will abide by the ruling, while conservationists are celebrating the decision.

Japanese whaling in the Antarctic will temporarily come to an end following a landmark decision by the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The court dismissed Japan's claims their fleets were hunting whales for scientific purposes, citing shortcomings in program design and poor evidence that the program produced scientific data.

The world court also slammed Tokyo for failure to explain why Japanese fleets killed far more animals than seemed necessary for data collection.

"We are disappointed," said Nori Shikata, spokesman for the Japanese government on this case. "Our program is for scientific purposes and not for profit. But, we will abide by the judgement of the court."

This means the Japanese government will no longer give whaling fleets permits for hunts in the Southern Ocean.

Australian victory
There has been an international ban on commercial whaling in place for more than 25 years. But according to the Australian government, Japan has killed more than 10,000 whales since that ban went into force. Australia, backed by New Zealand, launched a case against Japan last June, arguing that the country is hunting whales for commercial purposes, which is banned.
The ICJ decision is a major victory for Australia and for conservationists seeking to protect whale populations.

Japan forced to rethink on Antarctic whaling | Environment | DW.DE | 31.03.2014

 

[LordTyrannus]

Japanese Government should be sanctioned.

 

[Fabricio Tavares]

Whales are highly sentient beings, just as much as we are. So are dolphins, elephants, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans. Then comes the question: is it right to treat every animal as a "thing"? Untill when?