Here’s Why Commercial Whaling in Japan Might Actually Be A Good Thing

A flotilla of fishing vessels set out from the Japanese port cities of Shimonoseki, in the west, and Kushiro, in the north, this morning to resume the commercial slaughter of whales. The infamous Nisshin Maru, a 130-metre long whale factory ship, departed Shimonoseki alongside a pair of other whalers to hunt minke, sei, and Bryde’s whales in the Sea of Japan. Five smaller boats left Kushiro to look for minkes along the coast. According to local media reports, the fleets will fish until December, during which time they are expected to kill hundreds of whales.

This is the first time in more than three decades that Japan is openly hunting the animals for their meat, since joining the International Whaling Commission in 1988 and then controversially withdrawing from it at the end of 2018. During that period, Japan was forbidden from carrying out the millennia-old practice of whaling for commercial purposes. But they never stopped killing whales.

By exploiting a loophole in the terms of the IWC, Japanese whalers have been hunting under the guise of “scientific research” for years. And while the country’s withdrawal from the Commission last December drew ire from members of the international community, the development might actually be a good thing as far as the whale population at large is concerned.

In the six months from now until late December, Japan’s whalers plan to kill a total of 227 whales. They’re not allowed to kill any more, in fact, according to a quota set by the nation’s Fisheries Agency. That 227 collectively accounts for 52 minke, 25 sei, and 150 Bryde’s whales.

Meanwhile, during a five-month “research” expedition that ended in March this year, a small whaling fleet killed a total of 333 minke whales in Antarctica’s Southern Ocean. This was not foul play: Japan was allowed to both kill whales and sell their meat according to a clause in the IWC treaty, as long as it was done for scientific purposes. Scientists claimed that whale autopsies were essential to determine things like the animals’ diet and age—while critics roundly condemned the research as a masquerade for commercial whaling.

In 2014, in response to a suit brought by Australia, the International Court of Justice ruled that Japan did not need to carry out “large-scale whaling” and kill Antarctic minkes “for purposes of scientific research.” Japan canceled its Antarctic voyages for a year as a result, but resumed them shortly thereafter under new programs that allegedly complied with the court’s ruling.

Then, in July last year, Japan sought approval from the IWC to resume commercial whaling: claiming they would agree to quotas set by the Commission, and only target species with sustainable population numbers. The IWC refused, and a few months later Japan announced that they would withdraw from the agreement and revive their commercial whaling industry.

Japan’s whaling efforts—whether for “scientific” or commercial purposes—will no longer take place in international waters, but will now remain within its own coastal waters and the 320-kilometer exclusive economic zone around them, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The country has also pledged to abide by the theoretical catch limits that the IWC’s own Scientific Committee deemed sustainable. Common minke, sei, and Bryde’s whales are each believed to have populations of more than 20,000 in the western North Pacific, where the Japanese whalers will now operate. Quotas put in place by the Fisheries Agency allow for fishermen to take no more than 0.75 percent of that, in the case of Bryde’s whales, and just 0.26 percent in the case of minkes.

Whether whales in Japanese waters will now be put at risk is the real matter at hand—but Justin Cooke, a marine population assessment specialist at the Center for Ecosystem Management Studies in Emmendingen in Germany, told AAAS that the Northern Hemisphere minke population as a whole “is not threatened.” Masayuki Komatsu, a former delegate to IWC, further noted that Japanese fishermen already catch about 100 minke whales in these waters every year. In terms of commercial fishing, Japan has stated that their catch limits will be set “to avoid negative impact on cetacean resources”.

Of some concern is the fact that the waters near Japan and Korea host a particular, potentially unique population of minke whales known as the “J-stock”, which breed in the summer rather than the winter. It is not known for certain whether the return to commercial whaling—using harpoons, instead of nets—will put pressure on this population.

From Japan’s perspective, one of the most pertinent questions surrounding today’s return to whaling is one of economic viability. Many experts have cast their doubts over whether the market demand is strong enough to sustain the industry. While whale meat was once a dietary staple in Japan, it now makes up for just 0.1 percent of the meat that Japanese people consume, according to local media reports. While in 1962 some 233,000 tons of whale meat was sold on the market, by 2016 that number had dropped to just 3,000.

In Cooke’s view, Japan could very well follow in the trail of nations like Norway, where “a niche operation is feeding a niche market but with decreasing interest in the market and decreasing interest in going whaling.” Given Japan’s weak-and-getting-weaker appetite for whale meat, he thinks it’s unlikely that the country will start catching many more whales within its own waters than it already does, predicting that “there won’t be much change on the ground.”

Today’s twin voyages from Shimonoseki and Kushiro herald the return of Japan’s controversial commercial whaling industry. For anyone who thinks that even one dead whale is one too many, that’s a bleak situation. But it’s worth noting that from now on, free from the IWC and operating in plain view, Japanese whalers will be forced to hunt within their own borders, within strict regulatory quotas, and according to the demands of an industry that seems to be all but dead dead in the water.

Patrick Ramage, for one—a whaling specialist at the International Fund for Animal Welfare—is somewhat optimistic about Japan’s return to its old ways.

“It’s good news for whales,” he says.

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