Photo: Dead whale lies on deck of a Japanese ship in the northwest Pacific in 2000. Japan is the world's biggest consumer of whale meat. Credit: Reuters
On March 9, when it meets in Rome, the International Whaling Commission will consider a proposal that would allow Japan to hunt whales for meat in coastal waters. In return, Japan would curb, or perhaps end, its Southern Ocean and Antarctic “scientific whaling” excursions.
Japan kills nearly a thousand whales per year by exploiting a “lethal research” loophole in a 1986 commercial treaty which banned international whaling. Norway and Iceland ignore the ban.
No country on earth consumes more whale meat than Japan, and restaurants and markets in Japan are stocked with whale meat attained during research whaling season.
[...] IWC has spent the last 12 months exploring compromises that would allow relaxed restrictions on commercial whale hunting. Neither pro-whaling nor anti-whaling nations are likely to find this deal acceptable, and no [...]