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addition to the problems specific to the decision to take fin whales, as noted in the preceding
paragraph, are important to the Court’s assessment of whether the overall design of JARPA II is
reasonable in relation to the programme’s objectives, because Japan connects the minke whale
sample size (discussed below) to the ecosystem research and multi-species competition objectives
that, in turn, are premised on the lethal sampling of fin and humpback whales.
(2) Antarctic minke whales
182. The Court turns next to the design of the sample size for Antarctic minke whales in
JARPA II. The JARPA II Research Plan indicates that the overall sample size for minke whales
was chosen following Japan’s calculation of the minimum sample size for a number of different
research items, including age at sexual maturity, apparent pregnancy rate, blubber thickness,
contaminant levels, mixing patterns between different stocks, and population trends. The plan
further states that for most parameters “the sample sizes calculated were in a range of
800-1,000 animals with more than 800 being desirable”. Japan describes the process that it
followed to determine the overall sample size for minke whales with reference to the following
illustration that appears as Figure 5-4 in its Counter-Memorial:
Figure 5-4: “Necessary annual sample sizes for respective research items under JARPA II,
which was calculated by the established statistical procedures (source: Institute of Cetacean
Research).”
(Source: Counter-Memorial of Japan, Vol. I, p. 261.)