Japan said Friday it would redesign its controversial Antarctic whaling mission in a bid to make it more scientific, after a United Nations court ruled it was a commercial hunt masquerading as research.
The bullish response, which could see harpoon ships back in the Southern Ocean next year, sets Tokyo back on a collision course with environmentalists.
Campaigners had hailed the decision by the International Court of Justice, with hopes that it might herald the end of a practice they view as barbaric.
“We will carry out extensive studies in cooperation with ministries concerned to submit a new research program by this autumn to the International Whaling Commission (IWC), reflecting the criteria laid out in the verdict,” said Yoshimasa Hayashi, minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries.
Japan, a member of the IWC, has hunted whales under a loophole allowing for lethal research. It has always maintained that it was intending to prove the whale population was large enough to sustain commercial hunting.
But it never hid the fact that the by-product of whale meat made its way onto menus.
“The verdict confirmed that the (IWC moratorium) is partly aimed at sustainable use of whale resources.
“Following this, our country will firmly maintain its basic policy of conducting whaling for research, on the basis of international law and scientific foundations, to collect scientific data necessary for the regulation of whale resources, and aim for resumption of commercial whaling.”
Hayashi, who had met with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe earlier in the day, confirmed an earlier announcement that the 2014-15 hunt in the Southern Ocean would not go ahead.
Last month’s court ruling does not apply to Japan’s two other whaling programs: a “research” hunt in coastal waters and in the northwestern Pacific, and a much smaller program that operates along the coast, which is not subject to the international ban.
Hayashi said the northwestern Pacific hunt, which is due to depart Japanese shores on April 26, would continue, albeit in a slightly reduced form.
There was media speculation that the start of the next Pacific hunt had been delayed from April 22 to 26 to avoid a clash with a visit by U.S. President Barack Obama.
The mass-selling Yomiuri Shimbun said the delay appeared to be an effort to avoid overshadowing the visit with an activity widely denigrated in the West.
The United States is a major voice in the International Whaling Commission (IWC) against hunting, but is also Tokyo’s chief ally in the global community.
A fisheries agency official confirmed that the fleet would set sail on April 26, a day after Obama leaves Japan.
A statement released by the fisheries agency said the hunt would be scaled back, and was aiming to net around 100 minke whales in coastal waters, down from 120 last year, and 110 other whales offshore, down from 160. No minke whales would be caught in the deep ocean.
An element of the court’s ruling was that the Japanese mission was catching far too many whales for it to be considered legitimate scientific research.
Some commentators had suggested that Tokyo might use the court decision as cover to retreat from an entrenched position in which it defended as vital cultural heritage a practice that costs a lot of taxpayers’ money and does not enjoy much public support.
Friday’s announcement will come as a blow to anti-whaling campaigners, who had urged Tokyo to follow the spirit of the court ruling and heed global public opinion, which they say is firmly against hunting whales.
Environmental activist group Sea Shepherd, whose sometimes aggressive confrontations with Japanese whaling boats on the high seas saw them labelled “pirates” by a U.S. judge, said earlier this month they expected Tokyo to try to work around the court ruling.
Hayashi said Friday that Tokyo would redouble its efforts to foil potential saboteurs who have trailed their fleets around the Southern Ocean for several years.
“As for unlawful acts of violence committed by anti-whaling organizations, we will study counter-measures in line with a new research program from the standpoint of ensuring the safety of the research fleet, researchers and crew members,” he said.
© 2014 AFP
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