Fin Whales Firmly Part of Japan’s Whaling Ambitions

Japan has wasted no time in deploying its $47 million whaling “mother-ship” the Kangei Maru and claiming its first kill.

But having initially declared that the target species would be limited to Bryde’s, minke and sei whales, an eleventh hour Japanese government authorisation for the hunting of 59 fin whales, confirmed suspicions that the world’s second largest whales had been in their hunting plans all along.

And sure enough, those suspicions have been proved to be well-founded. Oceanographic reported Kyodo Senpaku, Japan’s state-owned high seas whaling company, as saying that its first kill had been a fin whale caught off the East Coast of Hokkaido, Japan’s northern island. This 19.6m long male weighing 55 tons was the first fin whale slaughtered by Japan since 2011. The harpooned whale was winched onto the Kangei Maru, which was designed with a shallow slipway and deck long enough to easily haul onboard whales up to 25m long. It’s surely no coincidence that this means that slaughtered fin whales can be easily accommodated and processed on board the gigantic ship.

Fin whales, the world’s second largest whale, are categorised as ‘vulnerable’ according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), after being driven to the brink of extinction due to centuries of whaling. The giant mammals can live up to 90 years old and can grow up to 27m long.

Speaking to Oceanographic last month, Sue Fisher, who is senior policy advisor for the Marine Wildlife Program at the Animal Welfare Institute neatly sums up the ghastly and invidious Catch-22 situation that Japan has created for itself:

“The decision to allow the killing of fin whales is a welfare and conservation disaster, with serious diplomatic and legal implications for Japan. It perpetuates a vicious economic cycle that Japan needs to break: Kyodo Senpaku can’t sell the whale meat it already has. Nevertheless, the company keeps asking the government for higher quotas and more financial support in hopes that miraculously rebounding meat sales will offset its mounting debts.”

In a rather lukewarm (or possibly strategically diplomatic..?) reaction, Australia has expressed its “deep disappointment” about the resumption of Japan’s whaling adding that; “Australia is opposed to all commercial whaling and urges all countries to end this practice. Australia’s efforts through the International Whaling Commission (IWC) have contributed to a whaling-free Southern Ocean and a decline in commercial whaling around the world. Australia will continue to advocate for the protection and conservation of whales and the health of our ocean for future generations.”

It is hoped that Australia may be matching diplomacy with some frank and slightly more forthright arguments at the upcoming IWC meeting in Peru next month.