by Jamison Maeda
Animal lovers around the globe are celebrating Monday’s United Nations high court ruling that orders Japan to halt its annual whaling hunt in the Southern Ocean.
The court said Japan’s claim that their whaling program was for scientific purposes is false. This ruling is binding and Japan cannot appeal. The court also suggested that Japan re-evaluate its smaller whaling program in the Northern Pacific, but Monday’s ruling refers only to the Southern Hemisphere.
The presiding Judge read a summary of the judgment saying Japan’s so-called research program, has killed over 3,600 minke whales and fin whales, but has produced only two peer reviewed papers since 2005. This ruling suggests Japan’s whaling program was in fact purely a source of revenue.
Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said his government will obey the court’s ruling and that Japan places great importance on the international legal order.
The government of Australia challenged the Japanese whaling program in 2010 in the International Court of Justice, accusing the Japanese of exploiting a loophole to get around the 1986 worldwide moratorium on whaling.
Each year, environmental groups such as the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society pursue Japanese whale hunters in an attempt to block the killing of whales.
“We are very happy with the backing of the International Court,” says Geert Vons of Sea Shepherd, “We had never expected such a strong ruling, telling Japan to cancel all of its Southern Ocean licenses.”
Patrick Ramage of the Fund for Animal Welfare said that the ruling “certainly has implications ultimately for whaling by Iceland and Norway as well…I think it will increase pressure on those two countries to re-examine their own whaling practices and the various reasons and pretexts given for that whaling activity.” Norway and Iceland rejected a 1986 moratorium on whaling imposed by the International Whaling Commission and continue to hunt whales commercially.
The Japanese whaling industry has suffered from significant debt and loses money every year. In addition to financial issues, the whaling industry has been rocked by scandal. The Japanese Fisheries Agency has admitted that five officials have been involved in illegally taking bribes. Also, donations meant for victims of the 2011 tsunami have been used for whaling, and donations for the Fukushima Recovery Fund were used to pay off whaling industry debt.
This ruling all but shuts down Japans brutal and bloody whaling industry and exposes its officials as corrupt. It also sends a stern message to Norway and Iceland that the rest of the world will no longer tolerate the slaughter of these intelligent and beautiful creatures for the sake of an archaic and financially insolvent industry.