December
26, 2018 by Mari Yamaguchi
In this
September, 2017, photo, a minke whale is unloaded at a port after a whaling for
scientific purposes in Kushiro, in the northernmost main island of Hokkaido.
Japan says it is leaving the International Whaling Commission to resume …more
Japan
announced Wednesday that it is leaving the International Whaling Commission to
resume commercial hunts for the animals for the first time in 30 years, but
said it would no longer go to the Antarctic for its much-criticized annual
killings.
Japan
switched to what it calls research whaling after the IWC imposed a moratorium
on commercial whaling in the 1980s, and now says stocks have recovered enough
to resume commercial hunts.
Chief
Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Japan would resume commercial whaling in
July "in line with Japan's basic policy of promoting sustainable use of
aquatic living resources based on scientific evidence."
He added
that Japan is disappointed that the IWC—which he said is dominated by
conservationists—focuses on the protection of whale stocks even though the
commission has a treaty mandate for both whale conservation and the development
of the whaling industry.
"Regrettably,
we have reached a decision that it is impossible in the IWC to seek the
coexistence of states with different views," he said at a news conference.
Suga said
the commercial hunts would be limited to Japan's territorial waters and its
200-mile (323-kilometer) exclusive economic zone along its coasts. He said
Japan would stop its annual whaling expeditions to the Antarctic and northwest
Pacific oceans. Non-signatory states are not allowed to do so, according to
Japanese Fisheries Agency officials.
The IWC
imposed the moratorium on commercial whaling three decades ago due to a
dwindling whale population. In 1987, Japan switched to what is calls research
whaling, but the program has been criticized as a cover for commercial hunting
since the meat is sold on the market at home.
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