In 1983 the International Whaling Convention declared a global moratorium on whaling, but included a clause allowing for countries to issue whaling licenses for scientific research. Using this loophole, Japan implemented a whaling research program that takes an average of 500 Minke whales per year. In 2000 Japan extended it's whaling research program, which was previously limited to Minke whales, to include Bryde's and Sperm whales. In the paper Japans Whaling Program Carries Heavy Baggage, Dennis Normile questions the contribution of Japan's research and their motives. (Normile, 2000).
The research program is trying to develop a resource management plan for Minke whaling. It records 100 data points including size, weight, sex, stomach contents, and age. To discover stomach contents the research team insists they must remove the whale's stomachs, though alternative non-lethal means of investigation have been suggested, such as are used for elephants. The most reliable way to determine a whale's age is by examining the buildup of protein in its ears, and to do so requires that the whale be dead. The question is, is the age of the whales important enough to kill the whales to find out? While information is being produced, they have so far found information of only marginal interest to the scientific community. (Normile, 2000).
Normile suggests that the true motives of the research project may be to keep the whaling industry alive. Every year the sale of whale meat generates nearly 36 million dollars in Japan. While it would not devastate the Sperm Whale population to take some samples, for example, scientist's fear that the information gathered will be used to justify a return to unregulated commercial whaling. (Normile, 2000).
Researchers are also expressing the concern that if whales return to their pre-exploitation populations they may be in competition with the fishing industry by either eating too much of the fish population or by eating the prey that the fish population needs to survive.
