Japan says it will move forward with plans to resume whaling in the Antarctic in 2015, ignoring a resolution adopted by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) that the country should respect a court鈥檚 ruling that the program is illegal.
, at a Thursday meeting of the IWC in Portoroz, Slovenia, member governments voted against Japan鈥檚 plans to resume whaling in the Antarctic by a vote of 35 to 20. While Japan鈥檚 delegation has argued that whaling activities meet the definition of 鈥渟cientific research hunts鈥 by providing a database for the resumption of sustainable whaling, numerous critics insist that Japan鈥檚 whaling is for commercial purposes.
In March, the International Court of Justice ordered Japan to revoke whaling permits in the Antarctic and stop granting new ones, asserting that the country鈥檚 whale research program, JARPA II, had failed to fulfill its scientific purpose (). Between 2005 and 2013, Japan published only two peer-reviewed papers on the subject.聽
鈥淚n light of the fact that JARPA II has been going on since 2005 and has involved the killing of about 3,600 minke whales,鈥 the court wrote, 鈥渢he scientific output to date appears limited.鈥
Despite the IWC resolution, Japan appears ready to proceed.聽
鈥淲e will be providing and submitting a new research plan in the Antarctic Ocean so that we implement research activities starting from 2015,鈥 Joji Morishita, head of Japan鈥檚 delegation, told the conference attendees, adding that whalers would be meeting the strict conditions of scientific whaling set by a UN court.聽
Animal protection groups condemned Japan鈥檚 plans.
鈥淎dditional action is needed to encourage and persuade the government of Japan to reconcile itself to the emerging global consensus for whale conservation, instead of whale killing, in the name of science in the 21st century,鈥 Patrick Ramage, director of the whales program for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, told the Associated Press.