Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary
Encyclopedia
The Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary is an area of 50 million square kilometres surrounding the continent of Antarctica where the International Whaling Commission (IWC)
International Whaling Commission
The International Whaling Commission is an international body set up by the terms of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling , which was signed in Washington, D.C...

 has banned all types of commercial whaling
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...

. To date, the IWC has designated two such sanctuaries, the other being the Indian Ocean Whale Sanctuary
Indian Ocean Whale Sanctuary
The Indian Ocean Whale Sanctuary is an area in the Indian Ocean where the International Whaling Commission has banned all types of commercial whaling. The IWC has at present designated two such sanctuaries, the other being the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary...

.

Area

The northern boundary of the sanctuary follows the 40°S parallel of latitude
Latitude
In geography, the latitude of a location on the Earth is the angular distance of that location south or north of the Equator. The latitude is an angle, and is usually measured in degrees . The equator has a latitude of 0°, the North pole has a latitude of 90° north , and the South pole has a...

 except in the Indian Ocean sector where it joins the southern boundary of the Indian Ocean Whale Sanctuary at 55°S, and around South America and into the South Pacific where the boundary is at 60°S.

History

The Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary was established by the IWC in 1994 with 23 countries supporting the agreement and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 opposing it.

The status of the Southern Ocean Sanctuary is reviewed and open to change by the IWC every 10 years. During the 2004 meeting a proposal was made by Japan to remove the sanctuary, but it failed to reach the 75% majority required (it received 25 votes in favour and 30 votes against with two abstentions).

Controversy and Enforcement

While commercial whaling is prohibited in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research has continued to hunt whales inside the Sanctuary in accordance with a provision in the IWC charter permitting whaling for the purposes of scientific research. Conservation groups such as the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society argue Japan's whaling operations are conducted in violation of the IWC charter, claiming the research is not really scientific activity but rather a veil to cover commercial fishing operations, since whale meat ends up being sold in Japanese markets - and, inevitably, making its way to Japanese restaurants and dinner plates. However, the by-product of any such research is required by law to be "utilised". (See chart : p8)

In an open letter to the Japanese government, published in 2002 in the New York Times and sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
World Wide Fund for Nature
The World Wide Fund for Nature is an international non-governmental organization working on issues regarding the conservation, research and restoration of the environment, formerly named the World Wildlife Fund, which remains its official name in Canada and the United States...

, 21 scientists declared that they "believe Japan's whale 'research' program fails to meet minimum standards for credible science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...

". They were "concerned that Japan's whaling program is not designed to answer scientific questions relevant to the management of whales; that Japan refuses to make the information it collects available for independent review; and that its research program lacks a testable hypothesis or other performance indicators consistent with accepted scientific standards". They accused Japan of "using the pretense
Pretext
A pretext is an excuse to do something or say something. Pretexts may be based on a half-truth or developed in the context of a misleading fabrication. Pretexts have been used to conceal the true purpose or rationale behind actions and words....

 of scientific research to evade its commitments to the world community".

The Australian delegation to the IWC has argued to repeal the provision that allows nations to harvest whales for scientific research, to no effect.

Japan, meanwhile, lodged a formal objection to the sanctuary with regard to minke whales, alleging that under IWC rules, the terms of the sanctuary do not apply to Japan. Claiming the Japanese whaling fleet's actions to be illegal, groups such as Greenpeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...

 and Sea Shepherd Conservation Society harass Japanese whaling ships while engaged in yearly hunts, attempting to interrupt or cut short its whaling activities by force. The ICR maintains such enforcement activity - and conservationists' methods of enforcement including forcefully boarding Japanese vessels without permission, propeller fouling of whaling ships, launching concussion grenades against whaling fleet crew, launching butyric acid projectiles designed to foul the taste of whale meat, and launching meat-fouling paint - amount to piracy, terrorism, and illegal harassment of the ICR fleet. Critics of the ICR point out that recent scientific advances allow for the use of non-lethal techniques in cetacean research, such as biopsies or determination of cetatean dietary intake through analysis of DNA samples from whale feces.

During the 2010/2011 whaling season, the ICR was forced to halt its whaling operations due to attacks by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, having harvested 172 whales (a fifth of their season quota). The ICR dispatched its whaling fleet as usual to the Northwest Pacific survey (JARPN II) , with a quota for 260 whales, including 100 Minkes.

Dispute over legality

Japan has argued that the establishment of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary was in contravention of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling
International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling
The International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling is an international environmental agreement signed in 1946 in order to "provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry"...

 (ICRW) on which the IWC is biased and is therefore illegal.

This view received strong support from Professor W. T. Burke of the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...

 in his paper circulated as IWC Document Number IWC/48/33. He refers to Article V(2) of the ICRW, which states that the creation of any sanctuary must "be based on scientific findings" and "take into consideration the interests of the consumers of whale products and the whaling industry".

Furthermore, Dr. Douglas Butterworth, University of Cape Town
University of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town is a public research university located in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. UCT was founded in 1829 as the South African College, and is the oldest university in South Africa and the second oldest extant university in Africa.-History:The roots of...

, has suggested that the sanctuary in "the Southern Ocean [is] a transparent attempt to prevent the resumption of whaling on the 750,000 strong Antarctic Minke population for reasons which have nothing to do with science."

As there is no settlement procedure in the IWC for this type of dispute, Japan has asked the IWC to submit its case to a relevant legal body for analysis. The IWC has refused to do so.

External links

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