Court Orders U.S. to Impose Strict Fishing Curbs on Japan

In a decision that could hasten the end of commercial whaling, a federal appeals court Tuesday upheld a ruling requiring the Reagan Administration to impose strict sanctions on the Japanese fishing industry to penalize Japan for violating restrictions on international whaling.

The ruling scuttles a hard-fought deal between the two nations that, in effect, would have allowed Japan to skirt a worldwide whaling ban and kill hundreds of sperm whales before abolishing its 300-year-old whaling industry by March, 1988.

To gain Japanese agreement on the 1988 date, the United States had said it would not enforce legislation that required a 50% cut in Japan’s fishing rights within U.S. territorial waters if Japan did not agree to the whaling moratorium.

Must Impose Cut

But Tuesday’s court order, which goes into effect in 90 days, will force the Commerce Department to certify that Japan is a violator of International Whaling Commission restrictions and require the State Department to impose the 50% reduction.

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel, in a 2-to-1 vote, rejected Administration arguments that Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige could choose whether to certify violations.

In agreeing formally to end whaling by 1988, Japan reserved the right to renege on the promise if the appellate court ordered the Administration to impose the economic sanctions, as it did Tuesday.

Japan may now make efforts on Capitol Hill to circumvent the restrictions, according to a spokesman for the Japan Whaling Assn. He said Tokyo could threaten to block the sale of U.S. fish to Japanese canneries--worth hundreds of millions of dollars--in hopes that legislators will alter federal law to permit Japan to continue whaling until 1988.

$500-Million Catch

But observers agree that Japan cannot afford to risk losing half its catch of fish from U.S. waters, which totals nearly $500 million a year, to save a dying whale industry worth one-tenth that much.

“If the government actually does enforce Packwood-Magnuson, we think Japan will be out of whaling by the end of the year,” said Patricia Forkan, a spokesman for the Humane Society of the United States. Packwood-Magnuson is the name of a 1979 amendment to the Fishery Conservation and Management Act that enables the United States to impose sanctions on violators of international agreements.

The Humane Society, Greenpeace and 10 other conservation groups filed the suit last fall to block the U.S.-Japanese deal and won their first victory in U.S. District Court in March. However, the decision was appealed by the Commerce Department, a defendant in the suit.

A spokesman said Tuesday that the department is “giving serious consideration” to appealing once again.