Let's be clear about one thing from the start: Japanese Whaling is not only unnecessary and unpleasant; it is actually illegal.
This
is not simply because of the whaling ships' blatant violation of
declared marine sanctuaries and Australian territorial waters. It is
illegal at its very core because it is based on a brazen lie.
The
International Whaling Commission has authorised the Japanese to kill a
certain number of various whale species each year for scientific
purposes - not for eating or for fun, but for that single end. Yet the
Japanese have basically given up all pretence that their annual
expeditions have anything at all to do with science. There are
occasional throwaway lines about examining a gland behind the ears of
the dead whales to determine how old they were when their lives were
ended, but nothing serious has ever appeared in a scientific journal.
Nor is it ever likely to.
Whale meat is openly served in Japanese
restaurants, which have been given a certain cachet by the international
condemnation to which they have been subjected; there is a touch of
edginess about eating whale in the same way as there is about eating the
potentially deadly fugu fish. But the market is a very limited one and
by itself would not justify the huge expense of mounting the annual
expeditions.
The real reason the Japanese persist in the practice
is sheer cussedness; they are not going to be pushed around by the
colonialists of the west, whom they regard as both bullies and
hypocrites. After all, every other nation on earth slaughters animals
for food, often under cruel and inhumane conditions. To argue for
special treatment for whales, especially those that are well off the
endangered list, is sheer humbug. And they are not going to put up with
it, so there.
From this perspective the most effective way to end
whaling might be to simply ignore it; the probability is that after a
few years it would be quietly phased out anyway, for reasons of simple
economics. But that is obviously not going to happen, so while the
whaling continues it is up to the rest of the world, and in particular
the countries of the International Whaling Commission, to enforce its
own rules.
But once again, this is not going to happen;
Realpolitik dictates that no government in its right mind is going to go
to war with Japan over whaling, so all that is left is the cumbersome
system of international law. Australia has, belatedly, taken a case to
the International Court of Justice, but the hearings will be both
delayed and prolonged and the outcome deeply uncertain.
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