BAN KRILL FISHING IN ANTARCTIC WATERS: Krill supertrawlers found trawling through whale pods for a second year in a row in the Antarctic.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxgdmnm8RYs

Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), 16 February 2018:

Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba)

Krill are small crustaceans of the order Euphausiacea, and are found in all the world's oceans.

In the Southern Ocean, one species, the Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba, makes up an estimated biomass of around 379 000 000 tonnes1, more than that of the global population of humans. Of this, over half is eaten by whales, seals, penguins, squid and fish each year, and is replaced through reproduction and subsequent growth of the krill population. Krill can live up to 8 years in aquariums but in the wild they probably live for 3 to 4 years, spawning when they are 2 to 3 years old.

They are important in the food chain because they feed on phytoplankton, and to a lesser extent zooplankton, making nutrients available to other animals for which krill make up the largest part of their diet. For this reason krill are considered a keystone species in the Southern Ocean ecosystem.

Krill undertake large daily vertical migrations, providing food for predators near the surface at night and in deeper waters during the day.

The size of the krill population is very variable from year to year and the changes observed appear to be driven mostly by how many young krill enter the population each year. This may be driven by variability in the amount of sea-ice, which is why there is a concern about the effects of climate change.....

“The krill fishing industry claimed that the images of krill trawlers fishing amongst whales that we captured last year were a rare occurrence. It’s now evident that it is par for the course. 

Krill is caught for products we do not need such as to create feed for farmed salmon or pet food. There is no need to destroy the foundation of the Antarctic ecosystem. It should shock all Australians that the farmed salmon that is produced in Tasmania, is fed the very food that penguins, seals and whales rely on to survive in Antarctica.” [Bob Brown Foundation, media release, 26 January 2024]

Echo, 26 January 2024:

Krill ships in Antarctica, trawling near whales. Screenshot from Sea Shepherd Global video.

Today Sea Shepherd Global has released footage and images of large industrial krill supertrawlers, once again trawling in large pods of whales off the Antarctic Peninsula.

The Bob Brown Foundation is calling on the Australian government to call on the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources to ban krill fishing in the Antarctic, based on the huge impact it has on the wildlife that calls Antarctica home.

The Bob Brown Foundation travelled to Antarctica over the Austral summer of 2022/23 and witnessed devastating scenes of trawlers fishing amongst foraging whales and penguins.

In October 2023, the Bob Brown Foundation released a report on where krill that is caught ends up in Australia. This report found that 100 per cent of Australian pharmacies surveyed carried krill oil products from the Antarctic and that Biomar, a fish feed producer in Wesley Vale, Tasmania, used up to 1200 tons of krill meal per year. This is the equivalent of 1 billion individual krill.

Krill ships in Antarctica.

Screenshot from Sea Shepherd Global video.

‘Once again, these immense supertrawlers have been caught plundering krill right out of the mouths of penguins and whales in Antarctica,’ said Alistair Allan, Antarctic and Marine campaigner at the Bob Brown Foundation.

‘The krill fishing industry claimed that the images of krill trawlers fishing amongst whales that we captured last year were a rare occurrence. It’s now evident that it is par for the course.

‘Krill is caught for products we do not need such as to created feed for farmed salmon or pet food,’ said Mr Allan.

‘There is no need to destroy the foundation of the Antarctic ecosystem. It should shock all Australians that the farmed salmon that is produced in Tasmania, is feed the very food that penguins, seals and whales rely on to survive in Antarctica.”

‘CCAMLR is expected to have a special meeting later this year to talk about Marine Protected Areas right where these trawlers operate. Australia must put forward a motion to ban krill fishing in Antarctica,’ said Alistair Allan.

CSIRO: new research shows that stronger El Niño may speed up warming of deep waters in the Antarctic shelf, making ice shelves and ice sheets melt faster

 

CSIRO News, 21 February 2023:

Stronger El Niño could cause irreversible melting of Antarctica

Totten Glacier. Photo: Esmee Van Wijk

New research led by scientists at CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, has shown that future increases in the strength of El Niño may accelerate the irreversible melting of ice shelves and ice sheets in Antarctica.

The results, published in Nature Climate Change, used climate models to show how an increase in the variability of El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) leads to reduced warming near the surface, but accelerated warming of deeper ocean waters.

ENSO is a key driver of climate variability, as both its warm phase, El Niño, and its colder phase, La Niña, influence weather conditions around the world, including in Australia.

Wenju Cai, lead author of this study and global expert on the relationship between climate change and ENSO, said the research was a critical step in further understanding how Antarctica will be affected by climate change.

“Climate change is expected to increase the magnitude of ENSO, making both El Niño and La Niña stronger,” Dr Cai said.

“This new research shows that stronger El Niño may speed up warming of deep waters in the Antarctic shelf, making ice shelves and ice sheets melt faster.

“Our modelling also revealed that warming around the edges of floating sea ice is slowed during this process, slowing down the melting of sea ice near the surface.

“Models with increased ENSO variability show a reduced upwelling of deeper, warmer waters, leading to slower warming of the ocean surface,” he said.

The associated winds around Antarctica are the mechanism driving this result.

When ENSO variability increases, it slows the intensifying westerly winds along the shelf. As a result, the upwelling of warm water around Antarctica is not able to increase as much.

The research team examined 31 climate models that participated in Phase 6 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) under historical forcings and a high-emissions scenario.

Co-author Ariaan Purich from Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future at Monash University said the effects of increasing ENSO variability go beyond extreme weather risks, and affect changes in Antarctic sea ice and ice shelves and sheets.

“This could have broad implications for the global climate system, so continuing to understand how ENSO will respond to climate change is a critical area of climate research,” Dr Purich said.

“There is still a lot more we need to understand about processes influencing shelf temperatures, and the finding is an important piece of the puzzle," she said.

NASA-National Snow and Data Center reports extensive melting in West Antarctica and the Peninsula

 

“The Antarctica Ice Sheet contains approximately 30 million cubic kilometres of ice, which is around 1,779,359 times the volume of Sydney Harbour. We’ll just let that sink in for a little bit…

It’s the largest single mass of ice on earth, and most of that ice is sitting on land – which means it has the potential to contribute to sea level rise if melted.”

[Climate Council, News/The Facts, ANTARCTIC ICE MELT UNSTOPPABLE WITHOUT STRONG CLIMATE ACTION, 16 October 2015]

For all of us in Australia who trust the scientific method but whose understanding is limited by lack of training in the appropriate fields, watching Antarctica for the last seven years is like waiting for the other climate change shoe to drop.

This is the latest information I have read......

National Snow and Ice Data Center, 12 January 2023:

Extensive melting in West Antarctica and the Peninsula

As the peak of Antarctica’s melt season approaches, surface snow melting has been widespread over coastal West Antarctica, with much of the low-lying areas of the Peninsula and northern West Antarctic coastline showing 5 to 10 days more melting than average. However, much of the East Antarctic coast is near average. Snowfall in Antarctica for the past year has been exceptionally high as a result of an above average warm and wet winter and spring.

Overview of conditions

Figure 1a. The upper maps of the Antarctic Ice Sheet (left) and the Antarctic Peninsula (right) show the total melt days for the areas from November 1, 2022 to January 10, 2023. The graph on the bottom shows daily melt extent for the Antarctic Ice Sheet as a percentage of ice sheet area for the same time period in red and the 1990 to 2020 average in blue. The interquartile and interdecile ranges appear in grey bands.

Credit: E. Cassano and M. MacFerrin, CIRES and T. Mote, University of Georgia

Antarctic surface snow melting through January 10 is above average and reached near-record extent in late December. A significant melt event spread over the Peninsula and across much of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet northern coast and into the Ross Ice Shelf area (Figure 1a). Melting has been moderately above average for the Peninsula areas, but unusually high in the Getz Ice Shelf area, where melting is less frequent. The Larsen Ice Shelf area has seen up to 25 days of melting, about 5 more than average, and the Wilkins region up to 30 days, again about 5 more than average (Figure 1b). The Getz and Sulzberger Ice Shelves (to the lower left of the Antarctic maps) have seen 10 melt days this season, about double the average for this time of year. East Antarctic Ice Shelves—Fimbul, Roi Baudouin, and Amery—have had near-average to slightly above-average melting of 5 to 10 days each.

Conditions in context

Figure 2. These plots show weather conditions as a difference from average relative to the 1991 to 2020 reference period for Antarctica and the surrounding coastal areas. The top plot shows air temperature at the 925 millibar level, in degrees Celsius, for December 1, 2022 to January 10, 2023. Yellows and reds indicate higher-than-average temperatures; blues and purples indicate lower-than-average temperatures. The bottom plot shows sea level pressure for the same period. Yellows and reds indicate higher-than-average air pressure; blues and purples indicate lower-than-average pressure.

Credit: National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Reanalysis data, National Center for Atmospheric Research

Snow globe Antarctica

Snowfall over Antarctica has been significantly above average over these last weeks, continuing a trend that began in November 2021. Several recent hydrological years (March 1 to February 28) for Antarctica have had up to 200 billion tons more snow than average, but the 2022 to 2023 year has reached nearly 300 billion tons as of January 10, 2023. This is in line with some future projections that suggest larger accumulation with a warmer climate until warming reaches above 7.5 degrees Celsius (13.5 degrees Fahrenheit). This very high deviation from average snow input suggests that the Antarctic Ice Sheet could gain mass this year. Snowfall amounts have been especially high along the western edge of the Peninsula and the Bellingshausen coast, where persistent southeastward-flowing winds push marine air against a series of mountain ranges and the ice ridge along the spine of the Peninsula. However, the biggest contribution to the above average total snow input occurs in East Antarctica, and specifically Wilkes Land and the interior of Antarctica. Overall, high snowfall in Antarctica may completely offset recent net ice losses from faster ice flow off the ice sheet for this assessment period. Most of the past decade has seen annual net losses of 50 to 150 billion tons.

Melt ponds and glacier retreat in the Peninsula

Figure 4. This true color image shows several melt ponds on the northern part of the Antarctic Peninsula (see inset map) on January 10, 2023. The image is from the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor aboard the NASA Aqua satellite. For reference, North is towards the upper right, and the image is 312.5 by 187.5 kilometers in size (about 180 x 120 miles).

Credit: NASA Worldview

Above average surface melting over the northern Peninsula is evident in the accumulation of surface meltwater in several areas of the eastern side of the Peninsula. The Larsen C Ice Shelf, and the SCAR Inlet Ice Shelf, a remnant of the former Larsen B shelf, are all showing significant areas of accumulated meltwater on their surfaces. Meltwater on ice shelves can pose a threat to ice shelf stability through a process called hydrofracture, where water fills pre-existing cracks in the shelf and forces the crack to open further as water pressure increases inside the crack.

The warm conditions have also triggered several rapid tidewater-style retreats in the area this season, most noticeably for Hektoria/Green/Evans glacier system in the northwestern Larsen B embayment. The glacial ice front of Hektoria has retreated roughly 5 kilometers (3 miles) in the past two months. A similar outflow can be seen in the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data to the north near the Sobral Peninsula from the Bombadier/Edgeworth/Dinsmore glacier system (not shown). The Seal Nunataks Ice Shelf remnant, which is between the Larsen A and Larsen B Ice Shelves, is also degrading since the sea ice minimum of early 2022.

Southern Right Whale and her small 'white' calf spotted in NSW coastal waters on their way to Antarctica

 

Southern Right Whale & her white calf
IMAGE: Right Whale ID program volunteer drone operator Maree Jackson

NSW Dept. of Planning and Environment, media release, 12 August 2022:

LEAVE THE LITTLE ‘WHITE’ WHALE ALONE

Four pairs of mother-and-calf southern right whales have been seen in NSW waters so far this winter – but one pair is slapping up a frenzy on social media.

The calf in this pair is mostly white, as seen in vision taken from high above, reminding people of the famous humpback Migaloo.

However, National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) Marine Wildlife Team Project Officer Andrew Marshall said while the sighting was exciting, whale fans needed to stay well clear of the family.

It is illegal to approach any closer than 300 metres when a calf is present, if you are on a vessel, including surfboards, paddleboards and kayaks. Drones must legally stay at least 100 metres above the animals.

“The calf appears to be white but is actually brindle,” Mr Marshall said.

“Its ‘white’ areas will darken to grey as it ages – it’s one of around 1-in-30 southern right whale calves born with brindle colouring.

“This is a rare event to see a virtually white brindle calf, as southern right whales are mostly very dark, although some have splashes of white called a blaze.

“If you look closely at the video you can also see pale grey areas on the mother, who also carries the recessive brindle gene,” he said.

The vision was captured off the south coast recently by accredited drone volunteer, Maree Jackson, from the NSW Government’s Right Whale ID research program to monitor the whales.

Maree used her camera’s zoom function from above the legal height of 100 metres to capture the ‘white’ calf surfacing for a breath while swimming alongside its mother.

Her drone approached at 100 metres then used a 7x optical zoom to capture the stunning close-ups.

“Curious onlookers are reminded to keep back and give the nursing mother and calf space to rest undisturbed,” Mr Marshall said.

“A calf needs up to 300 litres of milk a day to gain the weight needed for the 5000-kilometre swim back down to Antarctic waters in the coming month, so both the mother and calf need to be left alone so they can rest and feel safe.”

Now in its second year, the Right Whale ID Program uses highly trained volunteer drone operators to photograph the unique white head-markings on each southern right whale.

The Right Whale ID program operates as part of the Marine Estate Management Strategy, working with volunteer drone operators to collect important information about southern right whales to assist in their management, protection and conservation.

Southern Right Whale & her 'white' calf
Vision: Created by Right Whale ID program volunteer drone operator Maree Jackson

BACKGROUND

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNiA9qdF9ZA

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.

Japanese Government to withdraw from International Whaling Commission and recommence commercial whaling?

The Sydney Morning Herald, 20 December 2018:

Japan is to withdraw from International Whaling Commission by the end of the year, giving it the freedom to resume commercial whaling, Japanese news agency Kyodo has reported.

Kyodo quotes a government source as saying that Japan is unlikely to catch whales in the Antarctic Ocean after its withdrawal.

The government is considering allowing commercial whaling only in seas near Japan as well as the country's exclusive economic zone, the source said.

The decision will be announced by the end of this year, Kyodo said.

Humane Society International (HSI) said in a statement that, if the reports were confirmed, they would mark a welcome end to whaling in the Southern Ocean.

However, Nicola Beynon, from HSI in Australia, believes that Tokyo's decision to leave the rules-based order of the IWC would place Japans' North Pacific whaling program completely outside the bounds of international law.

She also fears that Japan may recruit other pro-whaling nations to leave the IWC, "leading to a new chapter of widespread and unauthorised killing of whales for profit".

"This is the path of a pirate whaling nation, with a troubling disregard for international rule. We're going to continue to press the international community to bring an end to the unjustified persecution of whales for commercial profit wherever it occurs," she said.

The IWC was established in 1948 under the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling. Japan joined the organisation in 1951.

Kyoda News, 20 December 2018:

The following is a chronology of events related to Japan's whaling.

1948 - The International Whaling Commission is established under the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling.

1951 - Japan joins the IWC.

1982 - The IWC adopts a moratorium on commercial whaling.

1987 - Japan starts hunting whales in the Antarctic Ocean for what it calls "scientific research" purposes.

1988 - Japan halts commercial whaling.

1994 - Japan launches research whaling in the Northwest Pacific.

2005 - Anti-whaling Sea Shepherd starts obstructing Japan's research whaling in the Antarctic.

2014 - The International Court of Justice issues an order to halt Japan's research whaling in the Antarctic.

2015 - Japan resumes research whaling in the Antarctic by reducing the number of whales it hunts.

September 2018 - The IWC rejects Japan's proposal to resume commercial whaling at an annual meeting in Brazil.

Dec. 20 - Japan's plan to withdraw from the IWC comes to light.

Japan has until 1 January 2019 to notify the International Whaling Commission of its intention to withdraw.

The fight against Japanese whaling in the Antarctic continues....

Minke Whale Breaching at http://wildwhales.org/speciesid/whales/minke-whale/

Australia states its position……

Australia opposed to commercial whaling proposal

Joint media release

Minister for Foreign Affairs, The Hon Julie Bishop MP

Minister for the Environment and Energy, The Hon Josh Frydenberg MP

2 August 2018

Australia is very concerned by Japan’s latest proposal to lift the global moratorium on commercial whaling at the next International Whaling Commission meeting in September 2018.

Australia remains steadfastly opposed to all forms of commercial and so-called ‘scientific’ whaling and continues to be a leader in seeking to strengthen the International Whaling Commission to protect whales.

We strongly support the 30-year global moratorium on commercial whaling and will vehemently oppose any attempts to undermine the processes that support it, including through changed voting regimes or the establishment of catch-limits for commercial whaling.

Australia and Japan enjoy a deep and strong bilateral relationship, but we disagree on the issue of whales. At the Commission meeting in September, Australia will be calling on like-minded nations to reject Japan’s proposal.

Australia has worked tirelessly to see an end to commercial whaling. We have co-sponsored resolutions to improve the operation and scrutiny of the Commission and its scientific committee; we have supported the establishment of new sanctuaries where whales can thrive in their own environment; we initiated the Commission’s twelve-nation Southern Ocean Research Partnership supporting non-lethal whale research; and we successfully took Japan to the International Court of Justice.

The Australian Government will continue to advocate strongly and consistently for the cessation of commercial whaling and so-called ‘scientific’ whaling. The science is clear, you do not need to kill whales in order to study them.

How one Japanese newspaper reported the issues……

The Japan Times, 4 August 2018:

SINGAPORE – Japan and Australia agreed Friday to make efforts to prevent their whaling dispute from hurting bilateral relations, a government official said.

During talks in Singapore, Foreign Minister Taro Kono briefed his Australian counterpart Julie Bishop about Japan’s proposal to restructure the International Whaling Commission to make it easier to resume commercial whaling.

But Australia is strongly opposed to all forms of whaling, raising concern that ties between Tokyo and Canberra could be strained by a practice that Japan says is a cultural tradition.

Last month, Japan proposed resuming whaling of some species of relatively abundant whales. The government halted commercial whaling in 1982, in line with the global moratorium adopted by the IWC, but has hunted the mammals since 1987 for what it calls “scientific research purposes.”

In September 2014, the IWC adopted a resolution saying Japan should abide by the International Court of Justice’s ruling earlier this year that its “scientific whaling” program was illegal and should be halted.

Bishop and environment minister Josh Frydenberg released a joint statement on Thursday condemning the proposal to lift the global moratorium on commercial whaling.

BACKGROUND

News.com.au, 30 May 2018, Japan whaling kills 122 pregnant whales for ‘research’

https://www.wildaboutwhales.com.au/whale-facts/about-whales/whale-life-cycle

Japan finds threats and bribery not working as well as expected with member countries in International Whaling Commission – will seek to change voting rules

I’ve lost count of the times that Japan has threatened to leave the International 
Whaling Commission (IWC) and bribery allegations seem to have been floating 
around forever. 

In 2001 a Japanese government official admitted to using these tools.

However, it appears the Government of Japan is not satisfied with results to date 
and now want to see IWC voting rules changed so that it won’t take as many 
threats and bribes to get its way and recommence large-scale commercial whaling.

Kyoda News, 27 June 2018:

Japan is set to propose resuming commercial whaling of some species at a 
meeting of the International Whaling Commission in September as a ruling 
party endorsed the government plan on Tuesday.

Tokyo is targeting certain types of whales whose numbers are relatively 
abundant such as minke whales for the proposal, but it remains uncertain 
whether it can secure support from members of the IWC that are split over 
whaling.

Tuesday's approval by the Liberal Democratic Party came amid emerging 
calls from some government officials and ruling party lawmakers that Japan 
should weigh withdrawal from the IWC.

Their criticism is directed at the divisive and what they see as dysfunctional 
nature of the international body, with one ruling party source saying, "We 
are not going to drag this out."

At the meeting from Sept. 10 to 14 in Brazil, to be chaired by Japanese 
government representative Joji Morishita, Japan plans to make a packaged 
proposal that also calls for easing of the IWC's decision-making rules, a plan
seen as a tactic to court anti-whaling members.

Currently, approval from a majority of three-fourths of IWC members is 
needed to set a catch quota or a sanctuary where whaling is banned. 
The Japanese proposal is to lower the hurdle to a simple majority.

The potential easing of the rules will make it easier for anti-whaling members
to secure support for designating a new whale sanctuary.

Of the IWC's 88 members, 40 support whaling while the remaining 48 are 
against the practice, according to Japan's Fisheries Agency.

The IWC, which aims to manage whaling and conserve whales, was 
established in 1948. In 1982, it declared there should be a moratorium on 
commercial whaling and the ban came into force in 1986.

Japan stopped commercial whaling across the board in fiscal 1988. But it 
continues to hunt whales for "research purposes," drawing criticism 
overseas that the practice is a cover for commercial whaling.

Phys Org, 27 June 2018:

At September's meeting in Brazil, Japan "will propose setting a catch 
quota for species whose stocks are recognised as healthy by the IWC 
scientific committee", Hideki Moronuki, an official in charge of whaling at 
Japan's fisheries agency, told AFP.

Moronuki said the proposal would not specify which whale species and 
how many mammals Japan wants to hunt, but he said the IWC classifies 
several species as no longer depleted.

The moratorium has been in place since 1986, and Japan's previous 
attempts to win a partial lifting have been unsuccessful.

Japan will also propose measures to change the body's decision-making 
process, lowering the threshold for proposals to pass from three quarters 
of members to half.

"The IWC has not been functioning. We should get united to build a more 
cooperative system," Moronuki said.

Tokyo has continued to hunt whales despite the moratorium, exploiting a 
loophole allowing "scientific research". It says the research is necessary to prove whale populations are large enough to sustain a return to commercial 
hunting.

It makes no secret of the fact that meat from the expeditions ends up on dinner tables, despite a significant decline in the popularity of whale meat.

Whales were a key protein source in the immediate post-World War II years, 
when the country was desperately poor, but most Japanese now say they 
rarely or never eat whale.

But foreign pressure on Japan to stop whaling has hardened the positions 
of conservative activists and politicians.

Japan cancelled its 2014-2015 hunt after the International Court of Justice 
said permits being issued by Tokyo were "not for purposes of scientific 
research".

But it resumed the hunts in 2016, and conservationists were furious this 
year after Japan reported it had caught 333 minkes on its latest expedition, 
122 of which were pregnant.

Japanese officials said the high rate of pregnant whales showed the strength 
of the minke population.

Japan's last bid to ease the restrictions was in 2014, when the IWC voted 
down its request to hunt 17 minke whales in its coastal waters—where 
smaller whales which Japan claims are not regulated by the committee are 
already hunted.