PD Editorial: Winning one for the whales

It was one of the worst kept secrets in the environmental world that those whales that Japan killed year after year weren't really for scientific research.

How do we know? For one, it's hard to justify the slaughter of more than 10,000-plus whales in the name of science, particularly when the advancements were not so apparent and were rarely published. The evidence shows there have been only two-peer reviewed studies produced in the past 10 years.

Second, these were clearly not marine biologists out there butchering these leviathans. For the most part, these were the same whalers who, for years, had been killing these ocean-going mammals until their work was banned by international law in 1986. Rather than halt the practice, however, Japan took advantage of a loophole in the law and, in effect, labeled these individuals as scientists.

There's also the fact that despite an international ban on commercial whaling, whale meat kept showing up in high-end Japanese restaurants, which has helped to subsidize the nation's whaling operations.

Fortunately, the charade came to an end last week when the United Nations' International Court of Justice moved to permanently put a stop to the annual Japanese whale hunt in the Antarctic.

Twelve of the court's 16 judges sided with Australia, which had brought the case claiming that there was no scientific justification for Japan's bloody harvest.

The good news is Japan has said it will comply with the order. But a spokesman for the fisheries agency has said that Japan will continue "scientific" whaling in the western North Pacific.

If so, another legal challenge is in order. This kind of research is just as dubious in other waters.

But there is hope for change within Japan. Younger generations are less interested in whale meat and many are urging an end to the practice. According to the Economist magazine, more than 5,000 tons of whale meat sits unsold in deep freezes in the country because of declining Japanese consumption.

But even if Japan decides to halt commercial whaling altogether, the campaign to save whales is far from over.

The attention turns to on countries such as Norway and Iceland which have continued their whaling operations by simply ignoring international law. Iceland's catch is small — around 200 a year — in comparison to those of Norway and Japan, but most of its catch are endangered fin whales.

Such practices are as much of a sham as Japan's research and must end.