14 DAY TRIAL // Just weeks ago, the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, ruled that Japan's whaling program in the Southern Ocean was illegal. Consequently, the country was ordered to pull the plug on this project.
Environmentalists were quick to label this verdict that the United Nations court delivered on March 31 as a major victory for conservation efforts. Still, some could not help but wonder what would happen to Japan's whaling program in the North Pacific.
As it turns out, the country has no intention to take the International Court of Justice's verdict anyway other than ad litteram. Thus, media reports say that, since the United Nations court only took a stand against its whaling program in the Antarctic, the country is to continue hunting marine mammals in the North Pacific.
Environmental group Sea Shepherd informs that, according to a Japan Times article published just yesterday, Japan's whaling program in the North Pacific is likely to debut sometime later this month. More precisely, it appears that the Japanese whaling fleet is to depart for the North Pacific on April 26.
Sea Shepherd further details that, according to information shared with the public, Japan's Foreign Ministry and the country's Fisheries Agency do not exactly see eye to eye when it comes to the upcoming whale slaughters in the North Pacific.
More precisely, word has it that, whereas the Fisheries Agency thoroughly supports this campaign, the Foreign Ministry fears that, should the country once again go hunting marine mammals this shortly after the International Court of Justice's ruling, Japan might get sued by anti-whaling countries.
Given Australia's success when it dragged Japan to court over its whaling program in the Antarctic, it could happen that the country will also lose the lawsuits filed against its whale hunts in the North Pacific, the country's Foreign Ministry thinks.
The Fisheries Agency does not share these worries and argues that, since the International Court of Justice's ruling only focused on whaling activities in the Southern Ocean, there is no reason why the country should cancel its upcoming campaign in the North Pacific.
The Agency further claims that this second whaling program is carried out for research purposes, and that the Japanese whaling fleet is not even planning to kill all that many marine mammals. On the contrary, its target catch is one of just 60 whales. Hence, the campaign should move forward.
Environmental group Sea Shepherd, together with other conservationists, disagrees and argues that, apart from the fact that it is to be carried out in another region, Japan's whaling program in the North Pacific is not in the slightest different to the one in the Antarctic. Otherwise put, the United Nation court's ruling should apply to it as well.
“Aside from the geographic region and the whales targeted, the JARPN [whaling in the North Pacific] and JARPA [whaling in the Antarctic] programs are identical twins when you look at their goal, construction and history."
“Thus a large part of the ICJ’s [International Court of Justice] motivation for the ruling on Antarctic whaling can be directly applied to the Northwest Pacific slaughter,” Sea Shepherd said.