Grim Report on Whales

Two alarming developments emerged from the International Whaling Commission meeting in San Diego:

--The stock of whales is lower that the grim earlier assessments had predicted, and

--Japan is continuing its defiance of the recommendations of the commission’s scientific committee with plans for an even larger kill of minke whales in the Antarctic under the scientific- research exemption to the whaling moratorium.

Furthermore, the meeting was marked by new estimates of the appalling kill of other sea mammals that suggest an urgent need for the commission to extend its work to dolphins and porpoises. Japan killed 39,000 Dall’s porpoises in 1988, apparently as a substitute for whale meat. An estimated 500,000 dolphins and porpoises were killed last year, including those taken by Japanese fishermen, thousands more accidentally killed in the nets of American tuna boats and in the surface gill nets of Korea, Japan and Taiwan.

The United States has continued its firm support of the moratorium, and continues to have sanctions in place against Japan. The moratorium is intended to facilitate a comprehensive assessment of world whale stocks, which some of the traditional whaling nations hope will justify a resumption of whaling under an international quota system.

An eight-year study of whale populations presented at the commission meeting raised grave questions. The blue whale, earth’s largest creature, has declined to an estimated 453 compared with an estimated 250,000 before the beginning of commercial whaling in the 15th Century. Fin whales have dropped below 4,000, compared with a supposed 500,000 before commercial whaling. Only 4,047 humpback and 3,059 sperm whales were counted, although the counts may have been incomplete.

The only whale actively hunted now is the minke, whose numbers are in dispute. In the last season, Japan took 241, Norway and Iceland fewer than 100 each, all under the “scientific research” exemption. Iceland announced it will suspend all whaling next year, while Norway announced plans to take 20 and Japan proposed 875. Paradoxically, the scientific committee had found the Icelandic research useful and valid, while finding the Norwegian and Japanese programs without merit.

At least there was firm commission opposition to Japan’s request to resume coastal whaling next year. But the Japanese argument at the commission meeting that it was the victim of cultural prejudice showed how much hard work lies ahead to implement effective whale protection.