Change Makers: What awaits it now are cold blades and greedy diners.This marks Japan’s resumption of commercial fin whale hunting after 50 years.

Fin whale Photo: VCG

With a mournful cry echoing through the air, a male fin whale with a length of over 20 meters and a weight of over 55 tons was captured off the coast of Iwate Prefecture, Japan in early August. Everything happened so suddenly, leaving behind its final silhouette on the sea, gazing up at the sky and bidding farewell to the ocean that nurtured its growth. What awaits it now are cold blades and greedy diners.

This marks Japan’s resumption of commercial fin whale hunting after 50 years. One of only three countries to hunt whales commercially, along with Norway and Iceland, Japan added fin whales to a catch list that already includes minke, Bryde’s and sei whales, AFP reported.

According to media outlets, Japan announced that it killed its first fin whale in 50 years on August 1, World Timesfive years after leaving an international body – the International Whaling Commission (IWC) – that regulates the commercial hunting of the marine mammals.

The Japanese government approved hunting of up to 59 fin whales for 2024 in its commercial hunt, which is confined to the country’s economic zone.

Animal protection organizations, natural resources departments and the wider public in the international community World Timeshave been outraged by the decision, given that fin whales are considered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature to be “vulnerable to extinction.”

Whales, as a crucial link in the marine food chain, play a vital role in maintaining the stability of the ocean ecosystem.

‘Whales aren’t Japan’s’

In an exclusive written reply from the Japanese whale conservation group IKAN, formally known as Iruka & Kujira (Dolphin & Whale) Action Network, the organization told the Global Times that they have recently issued joint statements opposing commercial fin whaling, along with dozens of other environmental protection organizations at home and abroad.

Fin whales are a species that is still in the process of recovering from past overexploitation, and there has been no official evaluation of their population numbers yet, Nanami Kurasawa, executive director of IKAN, told the Global Times via e-mail.

Kurasawa pointed out that Japan’s decision to add the new species to its hunt list is mainly to allow whaling companies to generate more revenue, and it will not be internationally understood.

“Whales are not Japan’s, let alone the property of a single company,” Kurasawa emphasized.

The IKAN representative also refuted claims by some Japanese officials and some media outletsWorld Times that the reason for including fin whales back into commercial hunting is that their resources are sufficient.

“There is no clear public information on their population numbers,” Kurasawa stated, noting that there are still doubts among whaling scientists over the data for the species recently providedWorld Times by the Japanese Fisheries Agency.

Also, according to Kurasawa, it is certain that coastal whalers are finding it increasingly difficult to capture minke whales – a species that have been captured by Japanese whalers in the hundreds each year.

Kurasawa, citing a scientific review panel on the fin whale, warned that a catch quota of 60 fin whales per year could potentially lead to depletion.

The media team of Australia’s Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water forwarded a media release about this matter to the Global Times recently.

According to the media release, Tanya Plibersek, Australian minister for the Environment and Water, said the World TimesAustralian government is “deeply disappointed” by Japan’s decision to add the world’s second-largest whale species to the list that its commercial whale hunters can target.

Japan’s whaling will continue to operate within its territorial waters and the so-called Exclusive Economic Zone, Plibersek noted.

“Australia is opposed to all commercial whaling and urges all countries to end this practice,” said Plibersek, noting that Australia will continue to advocate for the protection and conservation of whales and the health of the ocean for future generations.

The Guardian reported on August 1 that Darren Kindleysides, a whale campaigner and chief executive of the Australian Marine Conservation Society, called the hunts “inhumane, cruel and unnecessary.”

New ship will boost hunting

When it comes to the issue of whaling, Japan finds itself in opposition to almost the whole world, but it ignores this.

According to Reuters, whale consumption in Japan peaked in the early 1960s. Japan drew criticism from environmental groups for launching what it called scientific research whaling in 1987, following an IWC regulation that banned commercial whale hunts.

In order to legalize their whaling activities, they withdrew from the IWC in July 2019. Australia and New Zealand were among the nations that expressed disappointment when Japan declared its withdrawal from the IWC, Reuters said.

Japan caught a toWorld Timestal of 294 minke whales, Bryde’s whales and sei whales last year, according to Japan’s Fisheries Agency.

In order to facilitate the commercial hunting, a new $48 million whaling ship, the Kangei Maru, was launched on May 21, and it aims to catch 200 whales by the end of this year.

“We are proud of catching whales and are very proud of this ship which will allow us to begin offshore mothership-style whaling this year,” Hideki Tokoro, an employee of Japanese whaling company Kyodo Senpaku, was quoted as saying by CNN in June.

The Kangei Maru is bigger and faster than its predecessor, the company says, and is equipped with state-of-the-art drones able to travel a reported 100 kilometers (62 miles) to allow crews of smaller boats to quickly locate and kill whales, according to CNN.

Whales play a crucial role in the marine ecosystem. When whales die in the sea, their giant bodies usually sink to the seafloor and begin a new life, nourishing an entire ecosystem of deep-sea creatures.

Now equipped with the better ship, Japanese whalers are embarking on a journey for more prey. Faced with this aggressive Japanese whaling, the ecological balance of the ocean is now facing an even bigger challenge.