Cover image via imgur.com
According to a recent study, the humans have annihilated just short of 3 million whales over the course of the 20th century. It's "the largest hunt in human history." It's result? Many whale populations had been reduced to small fractions of their pristine abundance!
Image via Julio Cortez/AP
While whale populations have begun to recover across the globe, they still need to be protected against human predation, in particular against Japan. It has killed 14,000 whales since the worldwide ban on commercial whaling issued in 1986. It further plans to kill 4,000 whales in the Antarctic over the next 12 years.
But why should you care? Because it's a unique creature!
On 14 April, the Guardian reported that the International Whaling Commission (IWC) rejected Japan's proposal to kill 4,000 whales in the Antarctic over the next 12 years.
But a rejection from IWC means nothing, because the commission has no power to stop Japan from conducting a hunt anyway.
Image via Glenn Lockitch/AFP/Getty
According to VICE News, despite opposition from the IWC, countries are free to issue themselves permits for scientific whaling, and are not obligated to modify their research based on IWC recommendations
The whales that Japan wants to kill is Minke whale to study the age at which females reach sexual maturity. It's the smallest of the baleen whales and are found in all of the world's oceans but favour the icy waters of the poles.
Image via The New Daily
While scientists can now use techniques like photography and numbering and tagging individual whales in order to monitor whole populations, Japan refuses to change its long-standing claim that it needs to conduct "lethal research", as in kill whales, to better understand whale populations' migratory, feeding and reproduction habits with a view to a return to commercial whaling
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