Japan has added fin whales – a marine mammal that’s vulnerable to extinction – to its list of commercial whaling species in a move that conservationists have dubbed “an appalling step backwards”.
The Government of Japan announced on May 9 that fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) are fair game for whalers within the country’s exclusive economic zone, according to the Environmental Investigation Agency (IEA). The inclusion of fin whales brings the number of commercial whaling species in Japan to four, along with minke whales, Bryde’s whales, and sei whales.
The latest addition is particularly shocking due to the size and scarcity of the species. Measuring up to 25 meters (85 feet) in length, fin whales are the second-largest animal on earth in terms of length, second only to the blue whale. These majestic creatures can live up to 90 years old and have a cosmopolitan range across much of the world’s oceans.
They were listed as “endangered” by the IUCN until 2018, although their status has since been updated to “vulnerable.” Their population has roughly doubled since the 1970s, primarily thanks to bans on commercial whaling that allowed their numbers to bounce back. However, Japan now threatens to start undoing that progress.
“This is an appalling step backwards and the latest desperate effort by the Government of Japan to stimulate an almost non-existent consumer demand for whale meat in Japan, in order to justify having built a new whale-killing factory ship, at taxpayers’ expense, which could tie Japan into decades more of this destructive, unsustainable, inhumane and outdated industry,” Clare Perry, a Senior Ocean Adviser at the EIA, said in a statement.
“Fin whales are one of Earth’s great carbon capturers and should be fully protected, not least so that they can continue to fulfil their critical role in the marine environment,” explained Perry.
Japan resumed commercial whaling in June 2019 after its controversial withdrawal from the International Whaling Commission (IWC), the intergovernmental panel that regulates the whaling industry.
Commercial whaling has been banned since the IWC’s moratorium in 1982, although it continued to allow countries to kill whales for special purposes, such as scientific research and Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling.
Over 80 nations signed the agreement that came into being in 1986. However, several countries – namely Norway, Denmark/Greenland, Russia, Iceland, and Japan – continued to flout the ban and hunt whales under the guise of scientific research.
“Japan now proposes to kill the second largest animal on the planet, despite the global ban on commercial whaling and the nation’s legal duty to cooperate with the IWC, mandated by customary international law and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea,” added Perry.
Source Link: Japan To Start Hunting Fin Whales, The Second-Largest Animal On Earth
