Japan recently announced that it would withdraw from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and resume commercial whaling within its own national waters in July 2019. Japan’s declaration has drawn widespread criticism due to its utter disregard for international consensus on the need to protect threatened whale species. The IWC plays a crucial role in multilateral cooperation on whale conservation. Japan’s decision to withdraw its membership stems from its disagreement with the IWC’s global ban on commercial whaling, which went into effect in 1986 to protect dwindling whale stocks that were being driven towards extinction from overhunting and other threats.
By choosing to exit the IWC, Japan will no longer be bound by any of its protocols and there will be no external oversight of the number or species of whales killed by its fleets. Conservationists therefore fear unchecked commercial whaling by Japan within their own waters where the populations of several whale species are still in jeopardy, including endangered blue whales and sei whales and vulnerable fin whales. Beyond the numerous conservation arguments against the killing of threatened species for commercial purposes, animal welfare grounds alone should negate the harpooning of whales. There are no valid justifications for this outdated practice that is today shunned by the international community and the IWC, as well as by the majority of Japanese citizens who no longer have any connection to their nation’s historic whaling industry and its marketed products. Marine mammal species need to be protected, not brutally slaughtered.
Keep wildlife in the wild!
