Australia growing some nads whlie Japan defies them...
Japan Defies Australia on Whaling - NYTimes.com
TOKYO — Japan rebuffed a threat by Australia to take Tokyo to court over its whaling in the Antarctic, saying on Friday that the annual hunts were permitted under international law and accusing the Australian government of exploiting the issue for political gain.
Australia said it will take Japan to the International Court of Justice in The Hague to argue that Japanese whaling expeditions violate international obligations and a quarter-century moratorium on commercial whaling.
The legal action against its major trading partner underlines the Australian government’s “commitment to bring to an end Japan’s program of so-called scientific whaling” in the southern waters, Environment Minister Peter Garrett and Attorney General Robert McClelland said in a joint statement.
“We want to see an end to whales being killed in the name of science in the Southern Ocean,” Mr. Garrett said.
But Agriculture Minister Hirotaka Akamatsu said Tokyo was unfazed.
“Scientific whaling is recognized” under international law, he told a group of reporters in Tokyo, referring to the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, which authorizes the use of special permits to kill whales for scientific purposes.
The International Whaling Commission, which currently has 88 nations as members, banned commercial whaling in 1986, although some native and aboriginal groups are permitted to hunt whales for food. Norway and Iceland have since objected to the moratorium and continue to hunt whales.
International law also allows whaling for scientific purposes, and Japan uses this codicil to license its deep-water whalers.
“The Japanese have seized on that loophole and stretched it beyond all recognition,” said Steve Shallhorn, head of Greenpeace Australia Pacific.
Last season, Japan killed about 500 whales in the Antarctic, and about 300 in the Pacific. Some Japanese towns also engage in coastal whaling and dolphin hunts.
“I do not wish to harm Japan-Australia relations over all, but I hope to assert that what’s wrong is wrong,” Mr. Akamatsu said.
He also suggested that the Australian government was using the issue to drum up domestic political support.
“There will be general elections in Australia in the fall, and the Labor administration faces an uphill road,” he said, adding “that is also probably behind” Australia’s actions.
The Australian action also comes just three weeks before a meeting of the International Whaling Commission in Morocco where the scientific-whaling issue will again be debated.
“Certainly this action has upped the ante from the Australian government,” said Reece Turner, an anti-whaling campaigner for Greenpeace. “But we need to ensure that Australia is not dealt out of the negotiations and that a deal doesn’t slip through that would legitimize whaling in the Southern Ocean.”
Japan’s annual whale hunt — which typically begins in November or December — has come under attack from conservationists in recent years, with vessels from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society sometimes clashing violently at sea with the whaling fleet.
The Sea Shepherd group also has sharply criticized Mr. Garrett and the Australian government for not pressing the Japanese hard enough on a whaling ban. But on Friday, Sea Shepherd’s Australian director said his group was optimistic about the threatened legal action.
“Sea Shepherd commends the Australian government for living up to its pre-election promise, and for having the guts to stand up to the Japanese whalers,” said the director, Jeff Hansen.
On Thursday, Peter Bethune, a New Zealander with the Sea Shepherd group, pleaded guilty in a Tokyo court to charges that included trespassing and the destruction of property during an incident on a Japanese whaling boat in February.
Mr. Bethune had surreptitiously boarded the whaler to present its captain with a $3 million bill for damages caused by an earlier collision with Mr. Bethune’s Sea Shepherd boat, the Ady Gil, which was harassing the whaler at sea.
Mr. Bethune was held on board the whaler and arrested when the boat docked in Japan. Mr. Bethune, 45, could face up to 15 years in prison.
