Government plans to resume ‘research whaling’ in 2015
A Japanese whaling vessel cuts across the bow of the Sea Shepherd-operated Steve Irwin in the waters off Antarctica on Feb. 2. | SEA SHEPHERD AUSTRALIA/AFP-JIJI

Government plans to resume ‘research whaling’ in 2015

Kyodo

LOS ANGELES – The nation’s Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) has filed briefs in the U.S. District Court in Seattle stating its intent to resume whale hunting in the Southern Ocean as early as fiscal 2015.

The move, made Friday, immediately faced strong opposition from conservation group Sea Shepherd as it came less than two weeks after the International Court of Justice ordered Japan on March 31 to halt its so-called research whaling.

The government plans to resume whale hunting as soon as the fiscal year starting April 2015 by tweaking parts of its research program, including reducing the number of whales taken.

The ICR has said that the new program will not run counter to the ICJ ruling.

The ICR and Sea Shepherd have been locked in a legal dispute in the United States, with the institute seeking an end to the anti-whaling group’s interference in its hunt.

“The statement that Japan issued that they would comply with the ICJ ruling was I believe insincere,” Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson said.

“Japan has a history of duplicity with regard to whaling. I fully expect that Sea Shepherd Global will be prepared to return to the Southern Ocean in December 2015 to once again defend the integrity of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary,” Watson said.

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A Japanese whaling vessel cuts across the bow of the Sea Shepherd-operated Steve Irwin in the waters off Antarctica on Feb. 2. | SEA SHEPHERD AUSTRALIA/AFP-JIJI

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  • This was always to be expected. In fact its great to see that agencies can so readily circumvent the ‘spirit of the law’, because at the end of the day, as constituted, and because its constituted as dogma, ‘the law is a cad’ best not left to autocratic, arbitrary, coercive ‘majoritive’ governments, posthumously regarded to as mobsters.

    • phu

      This is so hard to parse that I’m honestly not sure… are you really asserting that you’re somehow pleased to see this happen so that later, in hindsight, it’ll be clearer to people that the government was acting unscrupulously?

      That’s not even cynical, it’s incredibly callous. Disregarding the potential dangers this kind of behavior poses to both humanity and the planet because you’re looking forward to jeering back in time at an administration once it’s gone is unfathomably selfish.

      Of course, if that’s not what you mean, you might want to try to be a little more cogent with your use of language if you expect to engage, convince, or otherwise communicate with anyone.

  • Funny how a woman scientist, Obokata, has been raked through the coals constantly in the news – but yet I’ve never heard of or seen any published papers or significant discoveries from Japanese whale “researchers.”

    Gee, I wonder why a woman who worked in the US is facing scrutiny while an entire industry of ossans doing “research” with whales is just taken at its word.

    Where are the published papers? Why isn’t this in the news every single day the way Obokata’s work is?

  • Denni A

    time for the Australian gov’t to step up to the plate since they are the ones who filed the initial complaint with the ICJ. let’s see if they now show the guts to send a Navy armada to blockade the whaling ships upon their arrival.