Warning: Second link contains an image of a dead whale.
![Minke whale, [x]](https://yesbiscuit.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/minke-whale.jpg?w=600)
Minke whale, [x]
Australia filed suit against Japan for its whale killing in the United Nations’ International Court of Justice. This week, the court agreed with Australia that Japan’s whale killings do not appear to be scientific in nature, citing:
- Japan could use non-lethal methods to collect the data it purportedly seeks.
- The sample sizes are not justified.
- There is no time-frame for the research to be concluded.
- Japan doesn’t talk whale science with other whale scientists.
- Very little scientific output has been produced as a result of the mass slaughter.
The UN Court determined Japan’s science was not so sciencey and ordered the country to stop hunting Antarctic whales. Japan says it will comply with the order but Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, who regularly eats science whale meat, vowed to “closely examine the ruling and swiftly figure out ways to continue whaling” which doesn’t exactly scream Compliance so much as it does Sinister Scheming 2.0. The ag minister seems very enthusiastic about continued killings, apparently because science must not be thwarted whale meat is ALL THE DELICIOUS.
There do not appear to be any meaningful repercussions if Japan decides not to comply with the order or comes up with some new loophole to exploit. And the order only applies to large whales, meaning that Japan’s slaughter of dolphins and small whales in Taiji Cove will continue. But the ruling is significant in that it calls out fake science (more, please) and puts additional international pressure on Japan to stop the killing, for what it’s worth.
By the way Australia, next time we run into each other I’ll be giving you a long hug, past the point of awkwardness and bordering on creepy.
mikken
/ April 2, 2014Yay for Australia for calling them out on their bullshit.
db
/ April 2, 2014Well said, mikken!
Adrianne Mock
/ April 2, 2014hopefully they can be help to the ruling… unfortunately they are still allowed to kill whales in other parts of the ocean (this ruling is JUST for the antarctic region) as well as dolphins and smaller whales elsewhere.
This is a GOOD start in the right direction however… and we need to keep the pressure up and keep it moving. Voicing our thoughts (politely) to our elected representativs at the state and federal level, and asking them to pass this on to other governments elsewhere will also help.
The whale and dolphin meat is tainted by heavy metals, toxins and is considered to be hazardous materials by some. This is a link to an article by bluevoice.org… they are not as over the top as some organizations, and appear to actually have some science to back up their findings. Needs more reading though…and the article is primarily about the dolphin slaughter (also unnecessary) in Taiji, which still continues… but here ya go:
http://www.bluevoice.org/news_notfood.php
Carmen Schwitzer
/ April 2, 2014Wonderful news! Let us never stop the wage against whale killing including the small ones.