At a time when marine life is facing ever-more challenges, Japan has decided to resume commercial whaling for the first time in 30 years. The Animal Survival International (formerly Political Animal Lobby) condemns Japan’s actions which will lead to even greater threats to whales which are battling.
Japan will leave the International Whaling Commission and flout the world-wide whaling ban from July 2019, the Japanese government’s chief spokesman, Yoshihide Suga, said.
ASI’s David Barritt, said that Japan’s actions will draw international condemnation. “A massive battle is underway to protect whales and allow their stocks to recover before they are lost forever. The situation is so serious that a world-wide ban on commercial whaling has been in place since 1986."
“Japan has consistently defied the ban, pursuing commercial whaling under the guise of scientific research. Now the Japanese government has confessed that its reason for leaving the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and defying the world to whale commercially, is for the sole purpose of killing whales to make money. It’s a disgrace for the Japanese people,” he said.
Japan says that stocks have recovered to make whaling sustainable but environmentalists dispute this saying most populations have not yet recovered, including blue, fin and sei whales.”
