Government of Japan sponsored whalers finally leave the Southern Ocean

Nisshin Maru is seen after it returned to port in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture at the end of its final whaling voyage into the Southern Ocean Japan Times

ABC News, 2 July 2019:

Japan's factory whaling mothership, the 'Nisshin Maru' has scrubbed 'research' from its hull and set out to sea as part of the country's resumption of commercial whale hunting.

Amid international criticism, several vessels left ports across the nation for the first for-profit hunt in 30 years. But this time, they are only going to hunt whales in Japanese waters.

Last December, Japan quit the International Whaling Commission, the body responsible for protecting global whale populations.

That meant the country could return to commercial whaling, but Japan had to give up a legal right to its so-called 'scientific whaling program' in the Southern Ocean.

Last year alone, Japan killed 333 minke whales in the Southern Ocean in the name of science.

Exiting the IWC and giving up that Southern Ocean whaling program was a "stupid" decision according to Japan's former chief IWC negotiator Masayuki Komatsu.

"We should go because it's a common property of the ocean," Mr Komatsu said.

"The more Australia claims that it is their own territory and their own oceans, the more that Japan [should keep going] because Australia is a minority.

"Japan and the US and other nations — China and Russia — we are a majority," he said.

Australian Parliament, Senate Hansard, 4 July 2019, excerpt:

Whaling

Senator WHISH-WILSON (Tasmania) (12:05): I seek leave to amend general business notice of motion No. 10

Leave granted.

Senator WHISH-WILSON: I move the motion as amended:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) Japan has turned its back on the international community by recommencing commercial whaling for the first time since 1988,

(ii) Japan has also turned its back on a rules-based order by leaving the International Whaling Commission (IWC) which has been integral to preventing some species of whales from becoming extinct,

(iii) Norway and Iceland have reduced commercial whaling in recent years in response to the negative impact it is having on tourism, and

(iv) whale watching is a viable business in many parts of the world, and that it is a much more sustainable business than killing whales; and

(b) condemns Japan, Norway and Iceland for their commercial whaling, and implores them to support whale watching rather than whale killing.

Senator DUNIAM (Tasmania—Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries and Assistant Minister for Regional Tourism) (12:05): I seek leave to make a short statement.

The PRESIDENT: Leave is granted for one minute.

Senator DUNIAM: The Australian government is disappointed that Japan has resumed commercial whaling, following its withdrawal from the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling and its decision-making body, the International Whaling Commission. Australia has publicly urged Japan to return to the convention and the commission as a matter of priority. The government welcomes Japan's decision to stop whaling in the Southern Ocean and its commitment to continue to cooperate with the commission. The government's position on whaling has not changed: we remain resolutely opposed to all forms of commercial and scientific whaling. Japan is well aware of our position.

Question agreed to.