Japan Struggles to Keep Controversial Whaling Industry Alive
By Nicholas Zifcak
Epoch Times Staff
Created: Feb 23, 2011 Last Updated: Feb 24, 2011
Sushi shop owner Katsuji Furuuchi offers whale sushi made from a lump of minke meat and pieces of blubber, in Ayukawahama, Miyagi Prefecture. (Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images)
Despite relentless battles with conservation groups, Japan's whale hunt for research continues annually. Japan argues the research is to track whale populations in support of their bid to lift the ban on commercial whaling. However, there is dispute within the research community on the relevance of that research.
Last year, Japan caught and killed 507 whales for research, and the whale meat was then sold in Japan for consumption. Although there is a ban on commercial whaling, it is stipulated by the 1946 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling that any whales caught for research should then be processed and sold.
Last week Japanese whaling ships left the Antarctic Ocean, cutting short this season's research expedition. Hampered by conservation group Sea Shepherd, the Japanese fleet caught only 172 of their targeted 850 whales (plus or minus 10 percent). For the last seven years Sea Shepherd has used its fleet to physically block the whaling ships.
The international body governing whaling, the International Whaling Commission (IWC), allows whaling for scientific study. However the value of the research conducted by Japan's government-led Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) is not subject to peer review. The International Whaling Commission does not require Japan to prove the value of its research.
The moratorium on commercial whaling was put in place by the IWC in 1982 because of a lack of scientific data on the precise status of whale stocks. Japan's ICR says the purpose of its research is to "resolve the lack of scientific evidence concerning Antarctic minke whales."
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According ICR, their research on minke whales includes information "such as age at sexual maturity, age at physical maturity, growth curve, blubber thickness, and stomach content change over the years."
After studying the genetics, biology, and body shape of minkes, ICR concluded there are two large stocks in the research area in the Antarctic, where there were originally believed to be six. ICR says it needs to therefore monitor changes in the Antarctic ecosystem to understand how the whales adapt to shifts in the ecosystem, "to provide scientific basis for comprehensive management of whale resources."
However, some marine biologists doubt the connection between the lethal research ICR is carrying out, and its stated research goals.
Dr. Phillip Clapham, who heads the Cetacean Assessment and Ecology Program at the National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle, says only a small portion of the ICR's research is relevant to whale population management.
The ICR produces "a plethora of papers that concern topics of no relevance to [whale population] management, and which frequently focus on (to put it mildly) arcane topics. For example, serum biochemistry of minke whales may be academically interesting to some, but it has no application to assessing the status of whale populations," wrote Clapham in an e-mail.
Clapham is also on the Scientific Committee of the IWC, as one of the commission's 200 advisers who review the science and rules that govern whaling.
The controversy over scientific whaling has been a long struggle between pro- and anti-whaling member-nations of the commission.
In 2005, Japan proposed a new research plan arguing the need to expand their study of whales because the Antarctic's ecosystem is undergoing change. Sixty-three scientists representing 16 of the 30 members of the IWC signed a paper contesting the claims in Japan's research proposal.
Japan's research whaling activities is the single most controversial issue within the IWC, often dividing the organization into two camps.
"The tragedy for the scientists involved in the debate on scientific whaling is that they are labeled as either pro- or anti-whalers. This impugns objectivity and relegates any discussion to polarized politics," wrote Clapham and three co-authors Nicholas Gales, Toshio Kasuya, and Robert Brownell Jr. in the June 2005 edition of the journal Nature.
In 2007, the commission passed a resolution calling on the government of Japan to refrain from issuing a permit for scientific whaling.
Japan fears that if its research into whale populations stops, the ban on commercial whaling will never be lifted.
Consuming the Whale
Despite the long history of eating whale in Japan, domestic demand for whale meat is low. Even so, according to Shigeki Takaya of Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries, last year Japan imported an additional 400 tons of whale meat from Iceland. That is in addition to the 3,500 to 4,500 tons of meat Japan has caught for research each year for the last five years. Japan also imported whale meat from Norway up until two years ago when Norway stopped exports.
Whale meat is commonly available in Japanese supermarkets and restaurants. The meat is sold smoked, canned, and frozen as well as raw for sashimi. At the low end, whale meat retails for approximately $25 per pound. Tuna, by comparison, sells for about $16 per pound on average, making whale not cheap, but certainly affordable for middle-class Japanese consumers.
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There is evidence that ancient Japanese ate whale as far back as the Jomon period (7000–8000 to 3000 B.C.). Much later, in the 17th century, whale catching advanced with use of nets and at that point consumption of whale became widespread. In post-World War II Japan the scarcity of food led to an increase in consumption of whale, and it became a staple of the Japanese diet.
End of Whaling
Keeping the tradition of whale eating alive is not just controversial; it's expensive. According to a Feb. 20 report by the Daily Yomiuri newspaper, Japan's research whaling costs an estimated $72 million annually. The three harpoon ships, one factory ship, and other refrigerator and refueling ships have a combined crew of 180 people. The Japanese government provides a $10 million subsidy for the research. The rest of the cost is offset primarily through the sale of whale meat. With only 172 whales caught this year, and 507 last year, out of an annual target of 850, there is much less meat to sell to help recover costs.
Japanese officials at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries have studied potential scenarios for next season, according the Daily Yomiuri article. One option considered was to have Japan's coast guard escort the fleet, but no coast guard ships can make the trip to the Antarctic. Building faster whaling vessels was also considered, but the cost is prohibitive. The other options considered are to get the IWC to reopen commercial whaling, to continue with the status quo, or to end whaling in the Antarctic Ocean.
In June 2010, Japan tried to get the IWC to consider reopening commercial whaling, but the effort was unsuccessful. With Sea Shepherd determined to prevent Japan from killing more whales, the cost to continue research whaling may become prohibitive.
With additional reporting by Miwako Nishimura in Tokyo
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