Japan continues to ignore IWC new whaling resolution.
The International Whaling Commission adopted last week a new resolution designed to prevent Japan, Norway, and Finland from killing whales supposedly for scientific research.
Japan officials have decided to ignore this new resolution although it is not the first time. After the previous general meeting in 2015, Japan continued whaling without consulting the IWC regulations released by the Scientific Committee.
During this year’s meeting, officials decided to form a task force which would take active measures against Japan’s current whaling projects. More precisely, there will be a set of comprehensive guidelines which will make scientific research hardly-doable.
Many countries expressed their concern and criticized Japan’s actions underlining that ‘Japan’s resumption of research whaling has been a huge disappointment.’ On the other hand, Japan’s spokespersons claim that the country’s new program has been thoroughly following all regulations issued by the International Court of Justice, or ICJ.
They also stated that the current scientific whaling conducted in the Northwest Pacific Ocean would continue and Japan would submit their new project to the IWC Scientific Committee in December.
According to the statistics, Japan’s research whaling has led to the death of 15,000 specimens from 1985 until now. Worse, about 500 whales are killed every year to serve as so-called research material.
Japan has hunted whales for centuries as they represented the main source of protein for local communities. Other findings reveal that Japanese people are not fond of whale meat, although you can find it on many restaurants’ menus.
Experts suspect that whale meat is used for another purpose and a large part of it ends up as pet food. Apart from Japan, Norway is the number one country for the highest number of whales killed during massive hunts.
Based on the latest reports, more than 12,000 minke whales were taken down between 1986 and 2014, whereas the highest record was set in 2014 when whaling caused the death of 736 specimens.
During the same period, Iceland’s whaling programs led to the death of 906 fin and minke whales. However, the reason why Japan is the considered the number one enemy is because all haul in Norway in Japan is probably sent to Japan as well and that is why the IWC Scientific Committee is doing its best to prevent this country from further conducting such extensive whaling programs.
Image Source: MintPressNews
