Australia Must Monitor Japanese Whaling

The Age

Monday December 17, 2007

IT MAY be lost in translation, but the phrase "scientific research" obviously undergoes a curious metamorphosis between Japanese and English, especially when applied to whaling in the Antarctic. Despite the global moratorium on commercial whaling imposed in 1987, Japan has continued to kill more than 1300 whales annually via a loophole that allows limited hunting for scientific research. Interestingly, two decades and thousands of slaughtered whales later, there has been little advance from all this research, which has been conducted from vessels originally used for commercial hunting purposes. The word "suspicious" comes to mind. Meanwhile, Japan remains implacably obdurate.

This summer in the Antarctic, a Japanese whaling fleet intends to conduct further "research" in its biggest field trip since 1987. The haul includes 935 Antarctic minke whales, 50 fin whales and 50 humpback whales - the first humpbacks to be hunted since 1963. As anti-whaling groups prepare to take on the fleet, the Rudd Government is developing plans to monitor Japanese whaling in order to mount international legal action against the practice. It also intends to back a long-running Federal Court case against a Japanese whaling hunt in Australian Antarctic waters. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said in Bali at the end of last week that Australia took seriously its international obligations to protect whales. The Government has, of course, to be careful not to disrupt this country's relationship with Japan, but Australia is not exactly alone in its opposition to whale hunting.

Crucial to this debate will be the results of a pioneering project in Antarctica by a team of Australian scientists, which will survey from low-flying aircraft the numbers of minke whales in pack ice previously unsearchable by ship. This should provide valuable insight into how many of the species survive (thought to be substantially fewer than the 860,000 last estimated 20 years ago) as well as enabling a greater understanding of conservation and management of the Southern Ocean's eco-system. This is research deserving of the name.

© 2007 The Age

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