Japan will resume commercial whaling in its waters and EEZ, as it announced its withdrawal from the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

What is whaling?

Whaling is the hunting of whales for their usable products like meat, oil and blubber. Contemporary whaling is subject to intense debate. Countries that support commercial whaling, wish to lift the ban on certain whale stocks for hunting. Anti-whaling countries and environmental groups oppose lifting the ban. Under the terms of the IWC moratorium, aboriginal whaling is allowed to continue on a subsistence basis. Among the IWC members, 41 are for whaling and 48 are against but its credibility has been clouded on occasion with allegations of vote buying on both sides.

What is IWC?

It is the global body charged with the conservation of whales (89 member countries are signatories to the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling). The headquarters of the IWC is in Impington, near Cambridge, England. The Secretariat publishes the Journal of Cetacean Research and Management, reports, press releases, and a calendar of meetings.

When was ‘moratorium’ on commercial whaling introduced?

Uncertainty over whale numbers led to the introduction of a ‘moratorium’ (temporary prohibition) on commercial whaling in 1986.

Countries openly defying the IWC’s ban on commercial whale hunting:

Iceland and Norway.

IWC failure:

For the first 15 years of its existence the IWC acted as a “whalers club” and imposed hardly any effective restrictions on whaling. Catch limits were set far too high and, since the IWC lacks a compliance and enforcement programme, were often exceeded. These management shortfalls resulted in the continued depletion of species after species.

Reason for Japan withdrawal:

Most whale species are not endangered and that eating whale is part of their culture. Japan has hunted whales for centuries, and the meat was a key source of protein in the immediate post-World War II years when the country was desperately poor. Tokyo also has long exploited a loophole allowing whales to be killed for “scientific research”. Japan has caught between about 200 and 1,200 whales each year, saying it is investigating stock levels to see whether the whales are endangered or not. Impact: Japan was the biggest financial contributor to the IWC (Funding setback). The move attracted condemnation from conservation groups and is likely to provoke strong responses from anti-whaling countries such as Australia and New Zealand. Ecological significance of whales:
Far from just providing huge amounts of meat, blubber, and oil for human consumption, whales provide important ecosystem services that have gone overlooked in debates about commercial whaling and whale conservation. Whale fecal plumes contain valuable nutrients like iron, nitrogen, and phosphorus. They stimulate production of microscopic marine algae, or phytoplankton, which form the base of many marine food chains. Phytoplankton, via photosynthesis, convert chlorophyll, sunlight, and a variety of nutrients including carbon dioxide into energy, while expelling oxygen. Phytoplankton feed zooplankton, tiny animals that live in surface waters, and both are critical food sources for many marine species such as krill and other marine invertebrates, fish, and even marine mammals, including whales.