Japan would do better whale research by not killing whales, said WWF yesterday, on the eve of a key International Whaling Commission planning meeting.
WWF delegation head, International Species Programme Director Dr Susan Lieberman, called on Japan in particular to recognise that science had moved a long way since a provision allowing governments to issue lethal research permits was written into the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW).
The 61 year old provision is the basis of Japan's so-called scientific whaling programme, which “produces meat but not answers,” Dr Lieberman said.
“At that time, killing whales was the only way to learn some of the most basic biological information, some of which was then used to set catch quotas,” Dr Lieberman said. “Today, much more plentiful and reliable information is available using the many better new ways of collecting whale data rather than much the same old ways of killing them.
“What sort of scientific enterprise is it that uses the most outdated methodologies to produce little published data, few insights into whales and negligible useful whale management information?”
For the International Whaling Commission Intersessional meeting, starting in London today, WWF is calling on Japan “to stop abusing the special whaling permit provision of the ICRW by conducting commercial whaling under the guise of research”.
“The Contracting Governments of the IWC must ensure that IWC-related research meets modern accepted scientific techniques, so that the IWC’s credibility on this issue is maintained,” Dr Lieberman said. “The continued abuses of Japan’s whaling programme are an affront to legitimate science.”
