NO, I haven’t seen the first whale of the season, way before its time, I’m celebrating the ban on the infamous Japanese whale hunt. The United Nations International Court of Justice has handed down a ruling that Japan should end its whale hunts in the Antarctic in a case brought before it by Australia. The ruling is considered legally binding and Japan is required to abide by it.
Japan always claimed that its whaling activities were for scientific research programmes, most of the rest of the world recognised it as simply commercial whaling in the face of the international ban. Australia put this view forward in its case to the UN ICJ, a view echoed by the court’s ruling. Japan has said that it will abide by the ruling, but that it ‘regrets and is disappointed at the decision’. Well, tough luck Japan and well done the ICJ.
Japan has killed about 3600 mainly minke whales in its current programme, started in 2005, with little scientific output. The minke (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) may be found all around southern Africa’s coast, but not generally inshore, therefore it is seldom seen. It’s also a small whale compared to our giant southern right and humpback whales, but like them it migrates to the Antarctic during the summer months. According to my sources its conservation status is unknown because there simply is not enough information on them.
Related good news is that Rakuten Ichiba, Japan’s retail giant, has announced the termination of all its sales of whale products in its market places. It is understood that the Rakuten decision also includes dolphin products – read ‘meat’.
There are now just two countries left hunting whales, Norway and Iceland. The bitter irony is that all three countries have been having increasing trouble over the past few years in selling whale meat to their publics. Teenagers in Japan, Norway and Iceland no longer want whale meat, they want Western fast foods like hamburgers and even national campaigns in those three countries to promote ‘whale burgers’ have failed miserably, so much so that shiploads of whale meat are being moved around until eventually they rot. So, all in all this is wonderful news.
Which brings me around to our whales. It’s a couple of months before we can expect the cry, ‘Whale, ho!’ for our first of the season, but they will be here (which is more than you can say for their little cousins, the sards). And is there anyone who can say that the sight of that first whale is not an extraordinary thrill, a thrill that for some of us is there with every one we see, right up to the last.
We are privileged indeed to have these magnificent creatures cavorting just off our beaches and how great it is that there are sensible people still taking sensible decisions about their future.
Whale, ho! Cheers!
Sources: BBC News; Whale Watch — A Guide to Whales and other Marine Mammals of Southern Africa, Vic Cockcroft & Peter Joyce, Struik, Cape Town, 1998, and savetheelephants.org News Service.
