Illegal Whaling

About this Item
Speakers - Jones The Hon Richard
Business - Adjournment

ILLEGAL WHALING

The Hon. R. S. L. JONES [10.14 p.m.]: I bring to the attention of honourable members a shocking report I have just received from the International Fund for Animal Welfare concerning illegal trade in whale meat and products in Japan and South Korea. Sixteen years after the International Whaling Commission voted for a global moratorium on commercial whaling, and 12 years after that moratorium came into force, whale meat and products are commonly available in retail markets in Japan and South Korea. Some of this meat is from whales and dolphins - known as cetaceans - that have been caught accidentally in fishing nets or found stranded on shore. Some of the meat in Japan has been found to have come from scientific whaling in the North Pacific and the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary; from legal hunting of small cetaceans such as dolphins and porpoises; and from stockpiles of past whaling operations.

However, this new report called "Whale for Sale" by the International Fund for Animal Welfare suggests that illegal hunting and smuggling of whale meat and products may be common in both Korea and Japan. IFAW researchers bought whale meat samples from markets in both countries. The samples were then subjected to DNA analysis by researchers from Harvard University, the University of Hawaii and the University of Auckland. Altogether, between 1993 and 1998, 419 whale meat samples were analysed for the report.

Analysis of the samples provided the following results: among the whale and dolphin products found for sale in Japan and South Korea, DNA analysis found samples to be from a wide variety of species, including southern and northern hemisphere minke whales; fin, blue, sei, Brydes and humpback whales; and three or four species of dolphins known as "kujira," the Japanese term for whale. DNA analysis of a sample of humpback whale meat bought in Japan in March 1997 provided a match to a whale found off Mexico that was sampled by biopsy. At present there is no known interchange between humpbacks off Mexico and those off Japan. Available evidence therefore suggests that this whale was killed illegally and smuggled into Japan. Humpback whales have been legally protected worldwide since 1966.

Fin whale products were found in larger quantities than would be expected from the amount available from exports of meat from Iceland’s scientific whaling program. This scientific whaling, which at the time was the only legal fin whaling in existence, ended in 1989 and the last recorded import of Icelandic fin whale meat into Japan was in 1991. One sample was identified as a blue whale, which has been protected from commercial whaling since 1965. Comparison with samples in DNA libraries worldwide showed that the DNA sequence was almost identical to a blue/fin hybrid caught by Icelandic whalers in 1979. Further research is necessary to determine if the sample was from a blue or a hybrid.

Several Brydes whale products were found in the commercial markets of Japan and Korea. Japan has not legally hunted this species since 1987. DNA analysis of one whale meat sample bought in 1988 showed that it was from a southern hemisphere sei whale. The last legal whaling of southern hemisphere sei whales was in 1979. The DNA of a large percentage of the minke whale products on sale in Korea was indistinguishable from those in Japan. This suggests that some whale products are being smuggled between Japan and Korea or that
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illegal hunting is more widespread than is admitted by either country. Two samples of southern minke whale products were found in Korea. These products must have been illegally imported from Japan or from whales killed illegally by Koreans or people from another country.

In addition, IFAW researchers found other things, such as a whale meat restaurant in Japan selling what it described as "illegally caught" whale meat. Another restaurant openly sold products that it claimed were from blue and sei whales. In 1996 whale meat, labelled as mackerel, was accidentally found in freezer storage in a metropolitan area in Japan. Also in 1996 the head of an extremely endangered West Pacific grey whale was found washed ashore on the Japanese island of Hokkaido. Eleven hand harpoons were found embedded in it. The Japanese Government claims not to know the origin of those harpoons.

According to the IFAW report, one of the biggest problems that emerged from the surveys was the paucity of regulations dealing with the hunting of, and trade in, endangered species of cetaceans. In this situation any legal whaling will provide a cover for the illegal exploitation of endangered species of whales. Without sufficient registration, accompanied by an independent enforcement body, trade in endangered species of whales will not be regulated, and illegal hunting of cetaceans, including endangered and protected species, will continue. It is disgraceful that Japan is quite clearly indulging in illegal practices. Australia provides fuel to Japanese whalers on their way to the southern sanctuary. I ask that this Government and the Federal Government make sure that the Japanese Government is made aware of the illegal activities taking place under the guise of scientific whaling.

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