While U.S. President Bill Clinton was signing legislation to protect the oceans, Japan expanded its whale hunt in the North Pacific. In defiance of international pleas from Clinton, Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair and other leaders, Japan has gone beyond hunting smaller minke whales to include the larger sperm and Bryde's whales.
Beginning with the killing of about 300 minke whales in 1987, the Japanese research program now claims 440 minke whales annually in the Antarctic. In 1994, Japan expanded its lethal research to the North Pacific with the additional killing of 100 minke whales. Most recently, Japan announced plans to kill 10 sperm and 50 Bryde's whales.
The International Whaling Commission banned commercial whaling in the mid-1980s. Thereafter, Japan began a lethal research program in the Antarctic, under an exemption to the convention. Most IWC member countries join the United States in opposing the lethal take of whales for research purposes, and have passed numerous resolutions -- most recently last month in Australia -- calling on Japan to discontinue its program.