Japan signaled it will restart its scientific whaling program at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) conference on Thursday, causing concern among those who say it will once again act as a front for commercial whaling, which has been banned internationally since 1986.
According to National Geographic, Japan had long been exploiting a loophole in the whaling ban, which has exceptions for whale research. A recent ruling of the International Court of Justice said that Japan's whaling program — which has killed 3,600 minke whales since 2005 — did not meet the requirements to qualify for the scientific exception.
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Japan yielded to the decision, and forewent its 2014-2015 hunt in the Southern Ocean in the Antarctic, but still maintained its smaller hunt in the north.
On Thursday, Japan announced its intention to begin a revised scientific whaling program in 2015.
"We are now carrying out preparations for a new plan for scientific whaling to resume in the 2015/2016 year, a plan that takes the International Court ruling into account," said Japanese Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga,
according to the BBC. "Our actions are based on international law, scientific fact and the international whaling treaty."
Because new IWC regulations enacted Thursday would require Japan to wait until 2016 at the earliest to execute a revised program, the announcement likely signals Japan's intention to disregard the regulations, and begin commercial whaling under false pretenses once again.
Iceland and Norway currently shirk the ban, but whale within their own waters, which are exclusive economic zones. Other countries like Greenland and the U.S. also allow a very small amount of whaling within these zones as part of subsistence hunts by indigenous peoples.
Japan is the only country that currently conducts whaling in international waters, including in a whale sanctuary near the Antarctic coast.
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