Japan’s disregards whaling review again
Japan has continued to kill whales since the 1986 commercial whaling moratorium, purportedly for research under Article VIII of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling. Last month, the country issued permits for a new scientific whaling programme (NEWREP-NP) in the North Pacific. This is despite an assessment by an International Whaling Commission (IWC) expert panel in February 2017 that Japan’s lethal sampling remains unjustified.
The panel also concluded that the NEWREP-NP proposal gave insufficient justification for sampling design and sample size, and failed to show that additional age data from dead whales could improve management of whale stocks. There were further concerns about the impact of the proposed catches on minke whales around Japan and South Korea – populations that are already threatened by high fisheries bycatch. The panel therefore advised that NEWREP-NP should not start, pending further study. In May, the IWC Scientific Committee endorsed the panel’s recommendations.
A previous expert panel reached similar conclusions in 2015 about Japan’s Antarctic scientific whaling programme, NEWREP-A (see A.S. Brierley and P.J. Clapham Nature 529, 283; 2016, and J. Morishita Nature 531, 35; 2016). As with NEWREP-NP, this went ahead anyway, despite the availability of widely used non-lethal alternatives for acquiring the information needed for stock management.
(The signatories are all national delegates to the International Whaling Commission’s Scientific Committee and collectively represent a majority of countries attending the committee’s most recent annual meeting in May. The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the policies or opinions of the governmental, academic or private institutions with which the authors are affiliated).
Phillip J. Clapham* Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Seattle, Washington, USA.
*Corresponding author
Rodrigo Almeida Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Brazil, Brasília, Brazil. rodrigo.almeida@itamaraty.gov.br
Eugenia Arguedas Montezuma Sistema Nacional de Areas de Conservacion, San Jose, Costa Rica. eugenia.arguedas@sinac.go.cr
C. Scott Baker Oregon State University, Newport, Oregon, USA. scott.baker@oregonstate.edu
Elanor Bell Australian Antarctic Division, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. elanor.Bell@aad.gov.au
Robert L. Brownell Jr. Southwest Fisheries Science Center, Monterey, California, USA. rlbcetacea@aol.com
Elke Burkhardt Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Bremerhaven, Germany. elke.burkhardt@awi.de
Danielle Cholewiak Northeast Fisheries Science Center, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA. danielle.cholewiak@noaa.gov
Justin Cooke IUCN, Gland, Switzerland. jgc@cems.de
Mel Cosentino University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK. orcinus.orca.1758@gmail.com
William de la Mare Australian Antarctic Division, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. Bill.delaMare@aad.gov.au
Mike Double Australian Antarctic Division, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. Mike.Double@aad.gov.au
Pedro Fruet Centro Mamíferos Aquáticos-CMA/ICMBio, Santos SP, Brazil. pfruet@gmail.com
Pierre Gallego Esch sur Alzette, Luxembourg. pierregallego@yahoo.com
Ana María González Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, Bogota, Colombia. gonzalezanamaria80@gmail.com
Nicole Hielscher Thünen Institute of Sea Fisheries, Hamburg, Germany. nicole.hielscher@thuenen.de
Miguel Iñiguez Fundación Cethus, Buenos Aires, Argentina. miguel.iniguez@cethus.org
Yulia Ivashchenko Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Seattle, Washington, USA. Yulia.ivashchenko@noaa.gov
Katia Jelić Croatian Agency for the Environment and Nature, Zagreb, Croatia. katja.jelic@dzzp.hr
Giancarlo Lauriano National Institute for Research and Environmental Protection (ISPRA), Rome, Italy. giancarlo.lauriano@isprambiente.it
Russell Leaper University of Aberdeen, UK. r.c.leaper@abdn.ac.uk
Kristy Long NOAA Fisheries Office of Protected Resources, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA. kristy.long@noaa.gov
David Lundquist Department of Conservation, Wellington, New Zealand. dlundquist@doc.govt.nz
Sarah Mallette Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center, Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA. sarahmallette@yahoo.com
John McKinlay Australian Antarctic Division, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. John.McKinlay@aad.gov.au
Simone Panigada Tethys Research Institute, Milan, Italy. panigada69@gmail.com
Graham J. Pierce Instituto de Investigacións Mariñas (CSIC), Vigo, Spain and CESAM & Departamento de Biologia, Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal. g.j.pierce@iim.csic.es
Stuart Reeves CEFAS, Lowestoft, UK. stuart.reeves@cefas.co.uk
Vincent Ridoux Université de La Rochelle, France. vincent.ridoux@univ-lr.fr
Fabian Ritter M.E.E.R. e.V., Berlin, Germany. ritter@m-e-e-r.de
Javier Rodríguez-Fonseca Fundación Promar, San José, Costa Rica. jrodriguez@fundacionpromar.org
Howard Rosenbaum Wildlife Conservation Society, New York, USA. hrosenbaum@wcs.org
M. Begoña Santos Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Centro Oceanográfico de Vigo, Vigo, Spain. m.b.santos@vi.ieo.es
Meike Scheidat Wageningen Marine Research, Ijmuiden, the Netherlands. meike.scheidat@wur.nl
Marina Sequeira Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests, Lisbon, Portugal. marina.sequeira@icnf.pt
Mark Simmonds University of Bristol, UK. mark.simmonds@sciencegyre.co.uk
Michael Stachowitsch University of Vienna, Austria. michael.stachowitsch@univie.ac.at
Ana Štrbenac Croatian Agency for the Environment and Nature, Zagreb, Croatia. ana.strbenac@dzzp.hr
Els Vermeulen Mammal Research Institute Whale Unit, University of Pretoria, South Africa. elsvermeulen5@gmail.com
Paul Wade Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Seattle, Washington, USA. Paul.Wade@noaa.gov
Alex Zerbini Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Seattle, Washington, USA. alex.zerbini@noaa.gov