What is the problem of "scientific"whaling?

What Japan calls "scientific" whaling is described in Section 2, Article 8 of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (signed in 1946).

The decision-making organization to put the convention into practice is called the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and annual meetings have held every year since 1948. In the annual meetings, advice that "the Japanese scientific whaling shall be shifted to non-fatal research, or shall be stopped" has been adopted almost every year since 1987.

Japan refuses to accept this advice. However, putting together the background leading to the operation of whaling and the actual condition, there is a strong suggestion that Japan aims at supplying whale meat and securing jobs for whaling companies, not necessarily for scientific purpose, and Japan's choice ignores the trend of international resource management.

Furthermore, the Antarctic Ocean area was set as whale sanctuary by IWC in 1994, and whaling in the area is banned permanently.

As for Japan's "scientific" whaling, the research is entrusted to the Institute of Cetacean Research by the Fisheries Agency which is an affiliated agency of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries, and whaling ships, whaling mother ships, and their crew are leased by Kyodo Senpaku. The institute of Cetacean Research was originally a private research institute established by a fishery company, and it was reorganized, with a 9.6 million dollar grant from the whaling industry, when the moratorium began and became the main body for "scientific" whaling. The working funds of the institute are as shown in the attached table:

The institute entrusts the whale meat caught by the "scientific" whaling to the wholesale dealer, and the institute is operated by the profit from the wholesaling and the government subsidy. Kyodo Senpaku was formerly called Kyodo Hogei, which was established in 1976, and the firm name was changed afterwards. Kyodo Hogei was established by consolidating the whaling departments of Taiyo Fishery (currently called Maruha), NISSUI, and Kyokuyo Hogei (currently called Kyokuyo). That is, all the industries which supported Japan's whaling in the Antarctic Ocean after the World War II have been condensed into Kyodo Senpaku.

And it is the only company in Japan that has whaling fleets and can operate whaling in the Antarctic Ocean. It was in late 1987 when Japan started "scientific" whaling. Japan started scientific whaling as soon as the moratorium on "commercial" whaling began for Japan after the 1986/87 whaling season in the Antarctic Ocean ended.

A year before the scientific whaling was started, or in the last season of commercial whaling in the Antarctic Ocean, Japan caught 1,941 minke whales. According to the original plan for the scientific whaling of the Fisheries Agency submitted to IWC in 1987, Japan planned to catch 825 minke whales and 50 sperm whales. Though Japan insisted that "the number was bare minimum required for maintaining accuracy in the statistics, the country planned to catch almost as many as 40% of the number of the whales caught by its commercial whaler in the previous year, Japan had to decrease the number to 300�}10%/year (270-330) following the criticism that the number was "too many". Instead, the overall plan was extended through 16 years.

Japan increased the number of whales to be caught in the Antarctic Ocean by 100 whales in 1994, started "scientific" whaling (100 whales) in the northwest Pacific Ocean in 1994, and caught 43 Bryde's whales and 5 sperm whales as well as minke whales in 2000. In 2002 plans have been announced to increase the Pacific catch to 260 whales and include sei whales in the catch.

By the way, Iceland caught fin whales in its surrounding ocean area by what they call scientific whaling between 1985 and 1989, and exported all the whale meat to Japan until 1992. The meat of fin whales is sold at higher prices compared to the meat of minke whales. Whales caught are sold by wholesale into the market by the Institute of Cetacean Research.

The meat of whales caught in the northwest Pacific Ocean in the summer of 2000 were sold on a commitment basis to the market traders at the following wholesale prices.

*Minke whales: mainly red meat, 2,980 yen/kg
*Bryde's whales: red meat, 3,760 yen/kg
The prices were higher depending on part, and the wholesale prices announce in 1994 were reported as follows.
*Tail meat: (the part close to fin) 8,640 yen/kg
*Choice red meat: 4,500 yen/kg
*First class red meat: 3,730 yen/kg

The wholesale prices are as high as the retail prices of beef, and it is not rare to see the retail prices of whale meat to be as high as 3,500 yen/100g. Some whale bacon is priced 4,000 yen/100g. The Institute of Cetacean Research gains sales of some 4 billion yen annually (4,073,759,000 yen in 1999) through by selling whale meat. Furthermore, the institute receives the government subsidy of nearly 1 billion yen (984,511,000 yen in 1999). These funds are allotted for the next scientific whaling. The current situation that expensive whale meat is distributing has caused rampant sale of the whale meat captured by poaching and smuggling in the whale meat market. In the year before last, it was reported by an anti-whaling organization which conducted the DNA researches of the whale meat distributing in the Japanese market that "11% of the whale meat distributing in the Japanese market was of the whales caught through poaching and smuggling." The Fisheries Agency has started DNA researches, however, it is getting more difficult to expose illegal whale meat than before, since the hunting and sale of the whales caught in the fixed fishing net are open on condition that the whaling company will register the DNA of the whales.

International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling Article VIII Notwithstanding anything contained in this Convention, any Contracting Government may grant to any of its nationals a special permit authorizing that national to kill, take, and treat whales for purposes of scientific research subject to such restrictions as to number and subject to such other conditions as the Contracting Government thinks fit, and the killing, taking, and treating of whales in accordance with the provisions of this Article shall be exempt from the operation of this Convention. Each Contracting Government shall report at once to the Commission all such authorizations which it has granted. Each Contracting Government may at any time revokes any such special permit which it has granted. Any whales taken under these special permits shall so far as practicable be processed and the proceeds shall be dealt in accordance with directions issued by the Government by which the permit was granted." The member nations can operate scientific whaling only by submitting research plans.