THE GUARDIAN
 
The Australian government has reiterated its opposition to whaling following Japan’s plan to resume hunting in the Antarctic waters next year but has been urged to apply diplomatic pressure to Tokyo over the issue.
 
On Tuesday, the Japanese government revealed a plan to kill 333 minke whales in the Southern Ocean next year. Over the 12-year period of the plan, 3,996 whales will be targeted.
 
The target of 333 whales is significantly lower than previous quotas Japan has awarded itself and follows legal action brought by Australia. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in March that Japan’s whaling program did not fulfill the scientific criteria that the country claimed justified its culling.
 
A spokesman for Greg Hunt, the environment minister, said Australia “remains opposed to all forms of commercial whaling and believes that all information necessary for the contemporary conservation and management of whales can be obtained using non-lethal methods.
 
“Australia remains of the view that lethal research on whales is unnecessary and that non-lethal research techniques are the most effective and efficient method of studying all cetaceans.”
 
Hunt’s spokesman added that Australian scientists will provide “robust scrutiny” of Japan’s whaling plan when it is submitted to the International Whaling Commission’s scientific committee.
 
But the government has given no commitment to raising the issue directly with Japan, prompting criticism from the Greens.
 
“The Liberal government has abandoned the leadership that had been shown by successive Australian governments for the last 30 years when they said they would put trade deals ahead of whaling in their relations with Japan,” said Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson.
 
“Greg Hunt’s once routine habit as opposition spokesperson for the environment in calling for the Australian PM to raise whaling with the Japanese PM has strangely lapsed upon entering government.”
 
Whish-Wilson said Australia needs to “pile on the diplomatic pressure” to back up the ICJ’s judgment and prevent further whaling by Japan.
 
Japan’s new plan, called Newrep-A, replaces the Jarpa II program, which was deemed as commercial whaling with a scientific facade by the international court. Jarpa II targeted 855 minke whales, 50 humpback whales and 10 fin whales, although the take was far less than this due to harassment from anti-whaling activists Sea Shepherd.
 
Japan suspended this year’s Southern Ocean whale harpooning, but intends to return to the icy waters in late 2015. A non-binding vote at the International Whaling Commission in September that would’ve suspended Japan’s whaling for a further year was ignored by the country.
 
“The killing of 333 whales per year is still far too many unnecessary deaths in an Antarctic whale sanctuary,” said Alexia Wellbelove, senior program manager at Humane Society International.
 
“It is now time that Japan listened to international public opinion and consigned their so-called research program and plans to resume commercial whaling to history where it belongs.”