Fiery debate expected at talks over Japanese whale hunt

International Whaling Commission (IWC) members will square off in Slovenia this week over the fate of hundreds of whales in the crosshairs of Japanese and Greenland hunters accused of sidestepping a commercial killing ban. The stage is set for fiery debate among the 88 IWC member states on issues of national sovereignty, aboriginal rights and the conservation of Earth’s bounty. Trigger issues are Tokyo’s plans to relaunch its Antarctic whale hunt despite a ruling of the U.N.’s highest court, and a bid for Greenland’s subsistence whaling quota to be enlarged. The commission’s 65th meeting runs in the Adriatic resort of Portoroz from Monday to Thursday - its first since the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in March ordered a stop to Japan’s annual Antarctic hunt. Japan cancelled its 2014/15 season but has vowed to restart the campaign.

There are so many environmental threats in addition to the direct killing that Japan, Norway and Iceland do: environmental degradation, pollution, ship strokes, there are so many impacts on these animals.

Kitty Block of conservation group Humane Society International

Commercial whaling is banned under a 1986 IWC moratorium, which has seen a rebound of many species hunted to near-extinction. It allows killing only for “purposes of scientific research” and for aboriginal communities in North America, Russia, Greenland and the Caribbean nation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines with a tradition of eating whale meat. Other countries in the spotlight include Norway and Iceland, whose governments issue commercial permits under an objection or reservation registered against the moratorium. Parties including the United States are pushing for the commission to take on a bigger conservation role, given that there is actually little “legal” whaling to control.

Asia-Pacific