3 June 2005
Japanese actions outrage Pacific community in Auckland
The Japanese government's announcement to increase its annual minke kill and include humpback and fin whales in its
"scientific research whaling programme" has outraged many of Auckland's Pacific leaders.
Tapa Charitable Trust CEO Melino Maka says the Japanese targeting of humpbacks is a direct threat to Tonga's economic
security. Mr Maka, who is also chair of the Tongan Advisory Council, has long been an advocate for South Pacific nations
creating ecotourism ventures around whale watching, adopting similar methods that have proven so successful with Ngai
Tahu and the Whale Watch Kaikoura experience.
"The terms sustainability and ecotourism are bandied around very casually these days. There's no question that they are
worthy ideals. What Whale Watch Kaikoura has done is apply these concepts in a practical way that improves economic and
social conditions. They have achieved a form of tourism not only based on nature but also on the people who live nearby,
their needs and their culture.
"In a relatively short time Kaikoura has gone from a depressed little town with a great fish and chip shop to what it is
today - one of the leading marine mammal tourism destinations in the world.
"Japan's latest announcement really demonstrates that it doesn't care about the South Pacific's long-term economic
future. The term scientific whaling is used by pro-whaling countries to disguise commercial whaling and they are
blatantly buying small economy nations and their membership to the IWC.
"It is about time developed countries and major NGOs stopped talking, got off the fence and did something positive for
our region and made an effective stand against this Japanese arrogance. The longer we delay the harder it will be to
save these magnificent mammals," says Mr Maka.
Massey University's Dr Mark Orams estimated in his 1999 study of the economic benefit of whale watching in Vava'u that a
humpback whale returning to Tonga every year during its 50-year lifetime would generate $US1 million in tourist revenue.
In 1998 the worldwide economic benefit of whale watching activities was more than $US 1 billion. Whale watching now
takes place in every continent and in countries as diverse as Argentina, South Africa, Japan, Norway, Iceland, New
Zealand and the majority of South Pacific nations.
"It's not nuclear physics," says Mr Maka. "How many times can you kill a whale? How many times can you watch one?
"Whatever my personal views on whale watching or whale hunting, the fact is here is a fledgling industry that can bring
great benefit to the Pacific and it is being threatened."
Background
Nearly 200,000 humpback whales and more than 700,000 fin whales were killed in the Southern Hemisphere during the 20th
century reducing both populations to near extinction. Now, Japan has announced plans to resume hunting of both species
in defiance of the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling and the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. The hunt will take
place in Antarctic waters south of Australia, New Zealand and other South Pacific island nations starting during the
Antarctic summer of 2005/06 as part of Japan's expanded programme of "scientific whaling".
Commercial sale of whale products from Japan's existing scientific whaling program generates an estimated US $52 million
in profits. If Japan and other whaling nations are successful with their plans to weaken international agreements on
trade in endangered species, meat from southern hemisphere humpback and fin whales could find its way to other whaling
countries, including Norway and Iceland, as well as the supermarkets of Tokyo.
Despite claims to the contrary by Japan, humpback whales throughout much of the South Pacific have shown little sign of
recovery to their former abundance. Scientists from the South Pacific Whale Research Consortium have been involved for
more than a decade in studies of living humpback whales on their winter breeding grounds in French Polynesia (Moorea and
Tahiti), the Cook Islands, Niue, the Kingdom of Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, New Zealand, New Caledonia and Vanuatu. Consortium
scientists have collected individual identification photographs and genetic samples from more than 1,200 whales
throughout this vast region.
This non-lethal research programme has provided a wealth of information, tracking the annual return of most whales to
their natal wintering grounds and, for the first time, the migration of some whales between the island chains. Working
with local governments, the Consortium has helped to establish sanctuaries for whales in the territorial waters of many
of these island nations and to promote appreciation of living whales through education and the economic benefits of
whale watching. Now, Japan's irresponsible plans to hunt these same whales during their migration to feeding grounds in
waters around the Antarctic could undermine local recovery.
"The King of Tonga banned hunting of humpback whales in 1978 and the population is only now beginning to increase in
numbers" say Dr. Scott Baker, Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Auckland. "These whales
migrate past New Zealand to feeding grounds in the Antarctic where they will be at risk of Japan's whaling fleet."
"Surveys in Cook Strait last winter confirmed the recent return of humpbacks to New Zealand after the intensive
commercial and illegal hunting of the last century" says Simon Childerhouse of the New Zealand Department of
Conservation. "These whales will now be hunted by Japan in Antarctic waters where the majority of member nations of the
IWC support a Sanctuary."
"Humpback whales were once common around Fiji but our recent surveys found almost nothing" says Dave Patton of Southern
Cross University, New South Wales, Australia. "Hunting on the Antarctic feeding grounds could prevent any return of this
population to its former habitat."
"The New Caledonia population of humpback whales numbers perhaps a few hundred individuals, many of which return year
after year to our southern lagoon" says
Dr. Claire Garrigue of Operation Cetacean in Noumea. "Japan's whaling will threaten our local tourism and undermine
recent legislation to declare a sanctuary for whales around New Caledonia."
"Japan's scientific whaling program has been widely criticised as a cover for a growing commercial hunt" says Dr. Phil
Clapham, Director of the large Whale Program for the Northwest and Alaska Laboratory of the National Marine Fisheries
Service in Seattle. "The quality of the scientific research is poor, providing almost no information of value for the
management of whale populations despite more than 10 years of operation and ???? whales killed."
ENDS