Killing Whales for "Research"

Get ready for another episode in the continuing saga of Japan vs. the world on whale-killing. It seems that a group of Australian, French and New Zealand researchers, fresh from the Antarctic, are putting the lie to the necessity of lethal research on whales.

Japan, which has a pretty abysmal record on whaling in general, is also number one with a harpoon in killing whales in the name of "science." Opponents of Japan's kill-happy whale "research" contend that said research is actually a convenient and profitable loophole in the International Whaling Commission's commercial whaling moratorium.

If that's true, and again I'll refer you to the state of the whaling industry in Japan, then it's no surprise that Japanese officials are going to the mat for the questionable science behind the whale harvest. The scientific leftovers (aka the tasty bits) are sold in various high-end restaurants and markets.

Bear in mind that Japan objected to the IWC's commercial whaling moratorium when it passed in 1982, and that Japan continued whaling until pressure from the US caused them to back down in 1988.

Back to our intrepid Antarctic researchers for a second. Their conclusion, that you don't need to kill whales to study them, isn't exactly new science. As far back as 2002, the World Wildlife Fund published a letter signed by a boatload of scientists contending that Japan's research program was junk science. The Australian government has also taken a hard line against whaling; a lot of Japan's operations take place near Australian waters.

In an interesting bit of serendipity, I saw a very good quote this week by Jacques Cousteau. Cousteau once said, "There's about as much educational benefit studying dolphins in captivity as there would be studying mankind by only observing prisoners held in solitary." I don't want to put words in his mouth, but you can imagine how he'd feel about Japan and their sketchy research.

Photo credit: Rob Gale