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The detention of anti-whaling activist Paul Watson in Greenland awaiting possible extradition to Japan has put the widely condemned practice of whaling in the spotlight.
The cessation of commercial whaling in 1986 has led to a recovery in whale numbers after centuries of hunting that reduced their numbers to near extinction.
Three countries still allow this practice today: Japan, Norway and Iceland.
Beyond the moral case against whaling, as made in campaigns like Watson's, what science drives the arguments for and against the practice?
– “Scientific” whaling? –
In 2019, Japan withdrew from the international whaling moratorium and resumed commercial whaling within its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone.
Before that, Japan had been pursuing “scientific research” in whaling since 1987, claiming that some data could only be collected from dead carcasses.
But the evidence to support this claim was weak, Paul Rodhouse, a member of the Marine Biological Society in Britain, told AFP.
“There seems to be very little justification for scientific whaling and very few worthwhile scientific studies,” he said.
A study published in Marine Policy in 2016 found that whaling and non-whaling countries produced similar numbers of scientific papers on whales between 1986 and 2013.
“If we look at all the whales that have been hunted and compare them to the very small number of scientific publications that have been produced, we say to ourselves that it was not really worth it, and scientific objectives were certainly not the priority of this activity,” Vincent Rideau, a marine megafauna researcher at the University of La Rochelle in France, told AFP.
Much non-invasive research is also being conducted on live whales using increasingly sophisticated technology.
These tools include satellite transmitters mounted on mammals, passive acoustic devices on marine vessels, satellite imagery, and artificial intelligence.
– Are whales still endangered? –
Overall, the moratorium on hunting has helped whale numbers recover.
However, there remain sharp differences between regions and species.
Japan hunts Bryde's, minke and sei whales, and wants to expand its catch to include fin whales as well.
The government says the species is “abundant” and that capturing them in limited numbers across Japan is sustainable.
The Bryde's minke and common mink are listed as “least concern” on the IUCN Red List, but globally the sei are considered “endangered”, and fin whales are listed as “vulnerable”.
Whales also face other threats besides hunting, including ship strikes, entanglement in fishing nets, and rising ocean temperatures.
– Whales and Ecosystems –
“Conserving biodiversity is not just about saving the ‘big animals’, it’s also about maintaining balanced ecosystems for the continued health of nature and people,” said Rodhouse.
“The abundant whales in the ecosystem contribute to enriching the surface layers with mineral salts and minerals such as iron,” Rideau added.
These elements are an essential source of nutrients for some living organisms.
Since whales breathe at the surface, they release much of what they consume there, providing a food source for marine organisms living on the surface.
– A “worrying” development –
In May, Japan launched a new “mother ship” for its whaling fleet to replace its former flagship, which will be retired in 2023.
The Kanji Maru weighs about 9,300 tons, a major upgrade that has raised concerns in the scientific community.
“It is very worrying because it is a large ship, it can go long distances and therefore its operating costs may be very high,” Rideau said.
“If you want to use a boat like this in a commercial sense, you need big stakes to balance the operating costs and there has to be a market for that.”
Tokyo says eating whale meat is part of Japanese culture and a “food security” issue in the resource-poor country, which imports large amounts of animal meat.
But whether or not there is a huge appetite in Japan for meat is an open question.
Consumption has fallen dramatically in recent decades to about 1,000 or 2,000 tons per year, compared to about 200 times what it was in the 1960s.
EAB/MH/GV/SMW
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