Japan says it will resume commercial whaling for the first time in 30 years with immediate effect when it leaves the IWC
- Japan will whale for profit when leaves International Whaling Commission in July
- Whalers in six towns will bring five vessels to hunt along north-eastern coasts
- Scope will be much smaller than previous annual ‘research hunts’ in Antarctic
Japan will resume commercial whaling for the first time in three decades just one day after it formally withdraws from the International Whaling Commission.
The Fisheries Agency said whalers in six Pacific coast towns are expected to bring five vessels to form a fleet to hunt along the country’s north-eastern coasts on July 1.
Japan’s decision to hunt whales for profit comes after it formally withdrew from the IWC last month after years of disagreement with pro-conservationist members.
Japan will resume commercial whale hunting immediately after it leaves the International Whaling Commission in July (Pictured, a minke whale is lifted from a ship at Kushiro port in Hokkaido, northern Japan)
A ship owned by the fisheries association in Taiji – known for its annual dolphin hunts – will contribute one vessel to the fleet which will hunt minke whales near Hachinohe or Kushiro in northern Japan.
Each vessel will then head south to Chiba, near Tokyo, while making several stops before heading back to Kushiro for more hunts later in the year, Japan’s national broadcaster NHK said.
Exact locations and hunting plans will be decided based on the results of research planned by the end of June, said Shigeki Takaya, a Fisheries Agency official.
The country faced widespread criticism for its decision to leave the IWC in December, with Britain’s environment minister Michael Gove saying he was ‘extremely disappointed’
Japan’s decision to resume whaling for profit was widely criticised, with Britain’s environment minister Michael Gove saying he was ‘extremely disappointed’.
But while conservationists have condemned Japan’s move, the scope of operation will be much smaller than the country’s much-criticised ‘research hunts’ in distant waters.
These annual hunts took place in the Antarctic and north-west Pacific oceans after the IWC imposed a moratorium in the 1980s.
Expeditions will now be limited to Japan’s territorial waters and its 200-mile exclusive economic zone along the country’s coasts.
Fisheries officials plan to start with a modest plan to carefully gauge a market size, a former IWC negotiator, Hideki Moronuki, said.
The withdrawal from the IWC may be a face-saving step to stop Japan’s ambitious Antarctic hunts and scale down the scope of whaling to around the Japanese coasts.
Expeditions will be limited to Japan’s territorial waters and its 200-mile exclusive economic zone along the country’s coasts
Japan, which is joining Iceland and Norway in openly defying the ban on commercial hunting, annually consumes 5,000 tons of whale meat from ‘research hunts’.
This is a fraction of the country’s previous whale meat consumption of around 200,000 tons in the 1960s.
But critics say they doubt commercial whaling could be a sustainable industry if Japanese young people do not see whales as food.