{"id":32794,"date":"2013-08-19T12:00:30","date_gmt":"2013-08-19T11:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=32794"},"modified":"2015-05-06T08:59:57","modified_gmt":"2015-05-06T07:59:57","slug":"in-science-terms-japan-has-no-need-at-all-to-kill-whales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2013\/08\/in-science-terms-japan-has-no-need-at-all-to-kill-whales\/","title":{"rendered":"In Science Terms, Japan Has No Need At All to Kill Whales"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"End<\/a>

End of the line: A Minke whale and her 1-year-old calf are hauled aboard the Nisshin Maru, the world’s only whale-factory ship, in the Southern Ocean in February 2008. In this case, Japan’s ‘legal research’ advertised on the ship’s stern left a large wound from an explosive harpoon in the calf’s belly. | AUSTRALIAN CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION SERVICE<\/p><\/div>\n

Final arguments from the defence and prosecution were heard in mid-July [2013], and the world court is now considering its judgment. At issue is Japan\u2019s right to conduct its seasonal \u201cscientific\u201d whaling program in Antarctic waters. But the case has involved arguments about how to define science itself.<\/p>\n

The legal challenge to Japan has been brought to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague by Australia, which has asked the Netherlands-based court to find that Japan\u2019s whaling program is illegal because it is actually commercial whaling \u2014 not scientific research that is permissable under the 1982 moratorium on commercial whaling declared by the International Whaling Commission (IWC), which went into effect in the 1985\/86 coastal and pelagic hunting seasons.<\/p>\n

On June 1, 2010, Australia initiated proceedings at the ICJ against Japan, alleging breach of international obligations concerning whaling.<\/p>\n

Japan contends that Australia has embarked on an \u201calarmist crusade\u201d against whaling.<\/p>\n

The stakes are high. Political relations between Japan and Australia have been strained during the trial, with Japan accusing Australia of \u201can affront to the dignity of a nation\u201d in bringing charges of lying about its whaling program.<\/p>\n

But in the Southern Ocean the stakes for thousands of Minke whales, in particular, are higher. If Japan wins the case \u2014 and some commentators suggest it is in a strong position \u2014 the legal status of its whaling program could be strengthened.<\/p>\n

Masayuki Komatsu, Japan\u2019s chief whaling negotiator from 1999 to 2004, told The Australian newspaper that the international court could rule that Japan\u2019s \u201cscientific\u201d whaling program \u2014 which many countries as well as Australia believe is a masquerade for a commercial whaling operation \u2014 is legitimate.<\/p>\n

The worst-case scenario, for opponents of whaling, is that the court overturns the IWC\u2019s 1985\/86 moratorium on commercial whaling, known as Article 10E in the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling. That outcome would be disastrous for whales worldwide \u2014 and it is precisely why the legal challenge to Japan, which at first glance many people opposed to whaling would probably support, is highly risky.<\/p>\n

Komatsu told the Sydney-based The Australian newspaper that he had been privately told by United States government sources that it was unfortunate Australia had brought the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven your government\u2019s bureaucrats were not enthusiastic about bringing this case to the ICJ because, in the most negative case, Article 10E of the schedule may be negated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Japan\u2019s legal team in the Hague also feels that the law is on its side. Noriyuki Shikata, a spokesman for the Japanese delegation, was critical about Australia\u2019s legal arguments in court. In the closing submissions last month, Shikata said: \u201cWe have not really heard effective legal rebuttal based on evidence and reasoning and we have an impression that many of the allegations are driven by emotions, not science.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several international legal experts gave evidence for Japan.<\/p>\n

Allan Boyle, a professor of public international law at the University of Edinburgh, made the claim that if Japan\u2019s current whaling program was not scientific, then neither were the research activities of numerous institutions worldwide that use fisheries data to assess sustainable catch levels.<\/p>\n

Another British legal expert, Vaughn Lowe, an emeritus law professor from the University of Oxford, said that \u201cthere is no uniquely correct formula\u201d for what qualifies as scientific research. He said Japan\u2019s view of its whaling program was that it is \u201can absurd exaggeration to say that it is not scientific research at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at what we know about what Japan has learned from its whaling program.<\/p>\n

Its stated objective is that it needs to kill whales in order to understand the feeding ecology and population makeup of various whale species. It needs to understand this, it says, so it can \u201cmanage\u201d whale numbers through hunting.<\/p>\n

Now, it is true that by catching and killing whales, and analyzing their stomach contents, a lot can be learned about cetacean biology. In the past, it was the only real method available to investigate these animals. But for many years now, it has been entirely unnecessary to kill whales in order to get the information that Japan\u2019s Institute for Cetacean Research says it needs.<\/p>\n

That institute, by the way, operates under the auspices of the Japan Fisheries Agency, a division of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, which issues annual catch quotas.<\/p>\n

In line with those quotas, between 1988 through the first half of 2011, 13,663 whales were caught under Japan\u2019s moratorium exemption for scientific research. Of those, 3,573 whales were taken in the North Pacific Ocean and 10,090 in the Southern Ocean, including from a large area designated by the IWC in 1994 as the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s better to collect poop than to kill whales. Collecting their feces may not be the most pleasant job in the world, but analyzing the DNA found in great dollops of whale poop floating in the open sea can tell scientists \u2014 without cutting open its stomach \u2014 what animals a whale has been eating.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, DNA samples can be taken with relative ease from these mighty marine mammals by removing a small plug of skin from them. And a lot can be learned from their nasal mucus (snot).<\/p>\n

Researchers can sample a whale\u2019s breath \u2014 including its snot \u2014 by catching the gunk that spurts from its blowhole. (If you can\u2019t imagine how you could possibly get close enough to a whale\u2019s nose to do this, think creatively: Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse, of the Zoological Society of London, flies remote-controlled helicopters over breaching whales, catching flying snot on Petri dishes strapped to the sides of the choppers.)<\/p>\n

From these samples, scientists can determine the viruses, fungi and bacteria that live in whales\u2019 lungs.<\/p>\n

Killing whales provides negligible data to science. Less than 1 percent of the papers published on cetacean biology come from studies that required the killing of a whale.<\/p>\n

In fact, tagging live whales tells you far more. GPS tags allow biologists to track whales and learn migration routes as well as daily routines. And acoustic tags record marine noise, so we can get an aural picture of the undersea soundscape \u2014 and an idea of the amount of noise pollution from boats that whales are having to tolerate.<\/p>\n

So despite what the legal experts \u2014 not biologists \u2014 may argue, Japan\u2019s claims that it requires lethal whaling to conduct scientific research just do not stand up.<\/p>\n

The worry is that the ICJ will only be able to rule on the legal arguments, which may favor Japan.<\/p>\n

It may be true that Australia\u2019s case has in part been driven by emotions, as Shikata says. But Japan\u2019s case is driven by national pride.<\/p>\n

In summing up the legal case for Japan, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Koji Tsuruoka said: \u201cWe have been able to present to the world the truth about Japanese scientific whaling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, this just did not happen.<\/p>\n

Now the court must decide what to do. There is a lot of information to process, and the ruling won\u2019t come for four to six months.<\/p>\n

______________________<\/p>\n

Rowan Hooper PhD (@rowhoop on Twitter) is the News Editor of New Scientist magazine. <\/i><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 japantimes.co.jp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Final arguments from the defence and prosecution were heard in mid-July [2013], and the world court is now considering its judgment. At issue is Japan\u2019s right to conduct its seasonal \u201cscientific\u201d whaling program in Antarctic waters. But the case has involved arguments about how to define science itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[170],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animal-rights-vegetarianism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32794\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}