Earlier this spring, the international court of justice ruled that Japan's whaling program is commercial in nature and should end, but prime minister Shinzo Abe claims that whaling has scientific merit and is necessary for research purposes. He announced plans that Japan will be moving forward with "research whaling" next year.
Abe says, “Japan is a country which values international law and order and the rule of law and therefore Japan will abide by [the decision to end commercial whaling]. Based on this Japan, looking at international law and scientific grounds, will engage in research of whaling in order to collect the indispensable scientific information in order to manage the whale resources."
The prime minister's claims are a rather transparent and pandering effort to justify Japan's continued practice of killing whales under the guise of scientific research. But if he really cared about studying whales, he would employ the many non-lethal technologies that most use to study whales today. Please sign the petition to urge Japan to stop whaling for science or any other reason!
As you know, the international court of justice ruled that Japan's whaling program is commercial in nature and should end. We are concerned with your claims that whaling has scientific merit and is necessary for research purposes. We understand that you announced that whaling for research will continue in 2015.
With today's technology, there is no need to kill whales in order to study them. Scientists are using non-lethal methods such as acoustics, genetic analyses and observation to study whales, and we believe it's time for Japan to follow suit. Thank you for taking the time to read and consider our petition.
