US Protests Japan's Antarctic Whale Killing

The United States, through the Department of Commerce has officially protested Japan’s continued practice of killing hundreds of whales in the Antarctic, for research purposes. The Japanese whaling fleet left port on November 15 with the announced intent of killing up to 935 minke whales and ten fin whales, under what many nations consider a loophole in the International Whaling Commission’s ban against commercial whaling.

"We are very concerned that this scientific whaling program in the IWC’s Southern Ocean Sanctuary is a further expansion of lethal research on Antarctic minke whales and fin whales." said Bill Hogarth, U.S. Commissioner to the IWC and director of the NOAA Fisheries Service in a press release. "These catches will only increase the growing friction within the IWC over how to deal with the expanding scientific whaling by Japan. The United States views the current Japanese research plan as unnecessary for managing the whales in question. Almost all research objectives can be achieved by using non-lethal techniques."

According to Commerce Department officials, the Japanese whaling hunts, conducted over the last 18 years under the JAPRA I and II Antarctic research programs, have resulted in the killing of thousands of whales, with little or no meaningful analysis of collected research data.

Contending that the group has turned into a "conservation organization," Japan has threatened to drop its membership in the International Whaling Commission and return to commercial whaling.

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