The resolution adopted by the European Parliament highlights the fact that genuine scientific research does not require the wholesale slaughter of whales. Photo by iStockphoto
It was a shot heard round the world when, in March 2014, the International Court of Justice ruled that Japan’s program of whaling in Antarctica was not in accord with the provisions of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling. Japan cancelled the program, and, for the first time in a century, Japanese boats did not pursue and kill whales in the Southern Ocean. It was a glorious moment for Humane Society International, which helped develop the strategy and worked with Australia on the legal challenge to the long-running whaling program disguised as scientific research. Was it really possible that the most conspicuous flouting of the global moratorium on commercial whaling would now end?
Sadly, any hope that Japan would abandon the charade of its “scientific” whaling program for good after the ICJ decision foundered in November 2014 when Japan released a new plan for Antarctic whaling that carries all the pretense of the old one. In December 2015, some 32 nations responded with a diplomatic demarche protesting Japan’s decision, even as Japanese whalers set sail for Antarctica once more. In a display of contempt for international law as wide and deep as the ocean itself, the fleet returned home some three months later with the parts of 333 minke whales in tow or in its hull. Some two-thirds of the adult females taken were pregnant.
This week, the European Parliament adopted a resolution — by an overwhelming majority — strongly condemning Japan’s resumption of “scientific” whaling, expressing disgust at Japan’s total disregard for the ICJ ruling, the standards of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), and international law. The resolution highlights the fact that genuine scientific research does not require the wholesale slaughter of whales, and acknowledges that whaling not only causes severe suffering to individual animals, but also threatens the conservation status of whale populations as a whole.
Parliamentarians from across 28 European Union member states were unequivocal in their demands: Japan must cease its whaling activities and abide by the IWC’s rules.
The parliamentary resolution was, however, not merely a condemnation of Japan’s persistent flouting of the global moratorium on commercial whaling. It also gave clear instructions to the European Commission, the European External Action Service, and the Council of the European Union to follow up on the December 2015 diplomatic démarche to the Japanese government to convey its concerns about continued scientific whaling, and to maintain diplomatic and political pressure on Japan to commit to its international obligations to protect marine mammals with a view to ending its “scientific” whaling.
The parliament also called on the European Commission and EU member states to take steps at October’s 66th meeting of the IWC in Slovenia, and to incorporate the ICJ ruling into its rules. The EU common position on whaling will be up for renewal after this meeting. For that reason, members of the European Parliament have urged the commission and council to adopt an approach that is at least as precautionary as the common position presently on the books.
The EU’s member states are united in their objections to whaling. Now it’s time for the United States of America to up its game in the run-up to IWC this year and at the meeting itself. President Obama traveled to Japan for an extraordinary ceremony at the site of the Hiroshima bombing. That was the latest bilateral act to demonstrate that Japan is clearly a friend to the United States. But friends don’t let friends drive whaling vessels that kill the greatest creatures on the planet in the Southern Ocean or in the North Pacific, where Japan has a second “scientific hunt”. Our federal government should instruct the U.S. delegation at IWC to strongly reinforce the EU’s position, and take steps to sanction Japan’s disregard for a rules-based international order.
The era of commercial whaling has persisted far too long, and the outliers should feel the full force of international pressure until they repurpose their boats and show the global community that they are no longer a threat to these gentle, gargantuan creatures.
The post U.S. needs to join Europe in actively condemning Japan’s whaling masquerade appeared first on A Humane Nation.
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