Scientific Permit Whaling
The rules of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) allow for "special permit whaling", commonly referred to as "scientific permit whaling" or simply "scientific whaling", provided it is "for the purpose of scientific research". Scientific whaling is not under the control of the IWC - permits and quotas are at the total discretion of each nation.
Almost 13,000 fin, sperm, sei, Bryde's and minke whales have been killed using scientific permits since the moratorium on commercial whaling came into effect in 1986.
There is heated debate in the IWC about the exploitation of this loophole as the governments of Japan and Iceland continue to issue their whaling fleets with scientific permits to kill whales, all of which are processed for their domestic whale meat markets.
The fishing industries are very influential in both Japan and Iceland and continue to lobby their governments to sustain and support whaling. Japan's whaling in particular receives substantial Government subsidies.
There is strong criticism of scientific whaling, even within the IWC's Scientific Committee which has called on Japan and Iceland many times to discontinue their lethal research programs.
Proven research alternatives exist, such as using low-powered projectiles to remove very small samples of skin and blubber. Even less invasive is the collection of skin that is being constantly shed by whales. A piece the size of a human finger-nail can reveal the whale's gender, identify the individual, show its relationship to other individuals and contribute to knowledge about population structure and dynamics.
The Australian Antarctic Division has also conducted pioneering work with the collection and analysis of faecal samples.
Japan
In 2007, Japan's North Pacific program (JARPN II) killed 208 minke, 100 sei, 50 Bryde's and 3 sperm whales.
The 2010 Antarctic program (JARPA II), took only 506 minke whales and one fin whale of an intended catch of up to 935 minkes and 50 fin. The reduced kill ws primarily due to the disruptive tactics of Sea Shepherd activists. Japan has progressively increased its Antarctic minke whale kill despite the IWC Scientific Committee being unable to agree on circumpolar abundance estimates for Antarctic minke whales or explain an apparent decline over the last two sets of surveys.
Japan announced four years ago that its new scientific whaling program included taking humpbacks from Antarctic waters in the 2007/2008 season. However, strong opposition from the Australian Government and condemnation by environmental organisations and citizens world-wide caused the Japanese Government, for the first time, to back down on its lethal research intentions. Japan has announced that it will not take humpbacks for the time being, but will not commit to continue excluding humpbacks in the future and has not removed humpbacks from its JARPA II program.
Iceland
The Government of Iceland also issues its whalers scientific whaling permits, with 39 minke whales killed in the name of science in the 2007/08 season, and an additional six taken by Iceland's commercial whaling activity. Under pressure from the influential fisheries industry, Icelandic authorities increased the whaling quota dramatically in subsequent years, with 200 minke and 200 endangered fin whales allocated for 2010.
Closer scrutiny
At its 2008 meeting, the IWC adopted a new process under which the results from scientific whaling programs will be reviewed, and new proposals evaluated, by a specialist working group. However, the group will only be able to provide reports and make recommendations - all nations will still be able to conduct unlimited scientific whaling under self-issued permits.
Australian initiatives
In December 2008 the Australian Government announced $26M in funding for non-lethal whale research conservation programs. One initiative will be a comprehensive, independent assessment of the scientific credibility of Japan's scientific whaling program.
Also included is funding for the Southern Ocean Research Partnership (SORP) announced at the IWC Annual Meeting in 2008. Participation in the international, multidisciplinary research collaboration is open to all IWC member nations, and Australian Environment Minister Peter Garrett has extended a warm invitation to Japan to take part.
Many nations today have laws that enable researchers to occasionally kill a protected species for scientific study and analysis. However, such applications are rarely granted and when they are, they are accompanied by very tight restrictions and conditions imposed by government and by institutional ethics committees, and the take is very small. The scientific permit whaling conducted by Japan and Iceland falls far short of such standards. When the rules of the International Whaling Commission were drawn up more than half a century ago, it is possible that this category of whale killing was included rather innocently, to allow for a very small number of whales to be taken occasionally for genuine scientific research.
