Australia, Japan Off To Court Over Whaling …
- May 29th, 2010
- Posted by EUEditor
The Australian government is expected to apply to the International Court of Justice at The Hague, next week, to challenge Japanese whaling in the the Southern Ocean.
The government says it has worked through the diplomatic options available to it, to try to dissuade Japan from its practice of hunting whales, permitted for purposes of research.
It had previously demanded that the whaling be stopped by November this year.
Likely Australian claims, based on previous confrontations:
The Japanese whaling fleet takes more than it would need for research.
It has breached international obligations to make a proper inventory of stock being harvested.
Similarly, environmental provisions are not being met, with damage caused by the shipping operations, including discharge of waste, in the ecological zone of Antarctica.
It might find space to argue that the research could be done without killing, and eating the specimens.
The Japanese government says it will defend the action, calling it, “disappointing” and “regrettable” – much as has been said often of that country’s whale hunting.
Related issues are:
An application currently before the International Whaling Commission to trim the allowed catch (approximately 2000 whales taken by Japan, Iceland and Norway each year), but remove the requirement for conduct of research.
Vigorous action by prosecutors in Japan against the skipper of a protest vessel destroyed in a collision with a Japanese whaling boat, who’d boarded the ship claiming an intention to place it under arrest.
Reference
ABC News, Sydney, “Japan st to defend whaling in courtâ€, 28.5.10. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/05/28/2912561.htm, (28.5.10).
Rod McGuirk, “Australia takes Japan to court over whalingâ€, Associated Press, NY, 28.5.10. lSEQjJTVWW3maGwejzAD9FVPIEG4, (28.5.10)
Picture Greenepace