The International Whaling Commission (IWC) was set up in 1946 to conserve whales and to regulate whaling. The IWC attempted to maintain world commercial whaling through quotas in an effort to allow individual whale stocks to replenish in number. During the first twenty-five years of the International Whaling Commissions existence, the organization saw the continued overexploitation and depletion of whale stocks. The recommendations of the International Whaling Commissions Scientific Committee at that time, were ignored by the whaling countries. As a result, whale stocks continued to be over exploited, and the advice concerning sustainable catch limits were ignored. When populations were finally protected from further hunting, it was usually after they had already collapsed. By the time the moratorium (ban) on commercial whaling came into force in 1986, some whale species had been reduced by more than 95%.

In 1982, the International Whaling Commission voted with the necessary three thirds majority to implement a pause on commercial whaling by 1986. The moratorium (ban) on commercial whaling, that has lasted for twenty years, unfortunately left provision for limited whaling under a scientific research permit. Japan initially objected to the moratorium but withdrew its objection in the face of the threat of economic sanctions made by the United States. Therefore, Japan became bound by the moratorium, unlike Norway, Russia and Iceland who had not signed. In 1987 Japan stopped it’s commercial whaling activities in Antarctic waters, but in the same year began it’s scientific whaling program called JARPA (Japanese Research Program in Antarctica). Exploiting the loophole in the legislation the scientific research started killing whales using the same boats, crew and equipment in the same area of the Pacific Ocean as the commercial whaling did prior to the moratorium. The only difference being the façade of scientific research.

The Japanese government pathetically justifies killing whales by saying that this type of scientific whaling provides insight into the dietary habits of whales. I say it shows more about the dietary habits of a few ignorant Japanese. The Japanese Government say that analysis of stomach contents and analysis of actual tissue is the only way to ascertain the age of a whale as well as the degree of interbreeding in the population which provides insight into whale population distribution. What in fact happens is the harpooned whale is dragged onboard, weighed and measured briefly before being processed by the butchers. In 2005, the JARPA scientific research program was replaced by the JARPA-II program, which increases the quota of minke whales to 900, and unbelievably, adds fin whales to the program. This move has sparked a great deal of anger among anti whaling nations, in particular because fin whales are listed as endangered under the Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species. It is widely agreed, amongst humans who care about this planet we live in, that it is abhorrent and the height of arrogance and ignorance to make a species Extinct. Starting in 2007, Japan plans to harvest up to 50 humpback whales and 50 fin whales annually. Japan confines it’s killing of whales to two areas; the North Pacific and the Southern Hemisphere. Neither the International Whaling Commission nor its scientific committee have requested any research by Japan, and both have repeatedly criticized Japanese whaling, and called for it to cease. The research is conducted under the auspices of the Institute of Cetacean Research. The "Institute" receives its funding from the whaling company Kyodo Senpaku and from government subsidies. Kyodo Senpaku was formed in 1987 and conducts the collection, processing and selling wholesale of the whale specimens on behalf of the research institute. It sells roughly US$60 million worth of whale products each year. Conveniently for the Japanese whale killing government it is a requirement of International Whaling Commission membership to sell any meat taken from research catches. It is ironic that if a legislation existed for sharks that required the whole animal to be used it would help end the hideous practice of shark finning. Conversely if a whale killed for scientific research could not be landed and the meat could not be used the Japanese Government would most likely lose interest in the scientific studies and therefore might stop killing whales. Japan continues killing whales today exploiting the scientific research whale killing permit. Japan's scientific whaling program is killing whales in much larger numbers required by any genuine scientific test, they have never stopped whaling and they never will stop whaling unless a total ban is put in force to save the whale. It is transparently obvious that Japan is killing whales in the name of science to provide whale meat for Japanese restaurants and supermarkets. However, it was reported recently that the Japanese peoples appetite for whale meat has diminished to such a degree that whale meat is now stockpiled and is being used in pet food manufacture. An opinion poll in Japan carried out in June 2006 by the Gallup affiliate, the Nippon Research Centre, showed that 95% of Japanese never or rarely eat whale meat and more than 70 percent of Japanese do NOT support whaling in the Southern Ocean. It is the Japanese Government who wants the return of commercial whaling not it’s people. Like a petulant child the Japanese Government will not be told what it can or cannot do and Japan, like a petulant child, will do any thing to get it’s own way...