Skip to content
All news
  • All news
  • About whales & dolphins
  • Corporates
  • Create healthy seas
  • End captivity
  • Green Whale
  • Prevent bycatch
  • Prevent deaths in nets
  • Science
  • Scottish Dolphin Centre
  • Stop whaling
  • Stranding
WDC2023-007 NMLC Release (16)

Seal Rescued in Marshfield Released Back Into The Wild

For Immediate Release, May 31, 2023 PLYMOUTH, MA - A young male grey seal that...

Norway ups whale kill numbers and removes whale welfare protections

The whaling season in Norway has begun on the back of disturbing announcements from the...
Image taken from an unmanned hexacopter at >100ft during a research collaboration between NOAA/SWFSC, SR3 and the Coastal Ocean Research Institute. Research authorized by NMFS permit #19091.

Southern Resident orca petition to list them under Oregon Endangered Species Act advanced

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission voted today to advance a petition seeking to protect...
Hysazu Photography

WDC and Conservation Partners Continue to Seek Oregon Endangered Species Protection for Southern Resident Orcas

On Friday, April 21st, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission will determine whether the petition...

’Business as usual’ as Japan publishes new ’research whaling’ plan

Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research this week published its draft plan for a new ‘research whaling’ programme in the Antarctic. The announcement comes after its previous whaling programme in the Antarctic (JARPA II) was declared illegal by the International Court of Justice in March, when the Court ruled that Japan’s hunt was not conducted for scientific purposes. However, almost immediately Japanese whalers announced that they intended to resume the hunt as soon as possible and so the publication of a replacement ‘research’ programme has been widely anticipated.  

The New Scientific Whale Research Program in the Antarctic Ocean (NEWREP-A) focusses on minke whales and aims to kill 333 of this species annually over a 12-year programme scheduled to run 2015-2027. While this at first sight seems considerably less than the 850 (+/- 10%) minke whales targetted under JARPA II,  the fact is that in recent years Japan hasn’t caught more than 300 minke whales per year, so the kill numbers of NEWREP would actually mean an increase in minke whales killed! In addition, the programme seeks to further expand Japan’s already massive whaling territory in Antarctic waters and will overlap with the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, an area covering 50 million square kilometres where commercial whaling was banned by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in 1994.

Japan’s draft plan will be scrutinised by the Scientific Committee of the IWC but, whilst it is open to revision, the IWC has no legal authority to block the resumption of research whaling. Many therefore regard the move as an audacious bid by Japan to resume ‘business as usual’ and it is clear that NEWREP-A, like its predecessors, is no more than commercial whaling in disguise.  For many years, the products of Japan’s so-called ‘research whaling’ have turned up in restaurants, supermarkets and online – with almost no scientific outputs.

Of course WDC believes that no whale or dolphin ever needs to die in the name of ‘science’ and benign research methods have been available for many years.

Please support our work to protect whales and dolphins.