TROUBLED WATERS - Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society

to be around 30,000 animals, and Japanese scientists warned that the hunting levels wereunsustainable (EIA 1999).As a result of pressure from the IWC and the international community, the annual hunt has nowbeen reduced to about 17,000 animals. There is, however, continued concern about the sustainabilityof this hunt and inadequacies in the reporting of the numbers killed.Killing methodsUsing specialised boats equipped with a bow platform, hunters travel offshore, anticipating that theDall’s porpoises will ‘bow ride’ the boats 1 . The hunter leans from the platform and throws harpoonsattached to long detachable shafts at the bow-riding porpoises. The harpoons are also attached tobuoys by lines to secure the harpooned porpoises while the hunt continues for other porpoises. Whenthe boat returns to collect the harpooned porpoises, they are dragged to the side of the boat andbrought aboard the vessel. Some hunters apply a charge of electricity to the animals through theharpoon as it strikes them, or once they are aboard, if they have not been killed by the impact of theharpoon. Porpoises which have not been killed by either the harpoon or the electricity will have theirnecks cut with a knife, probably from the underside of the head, so that they bleed to death.60A REVIEW OF THE WELFARE IMPLICATIONS OF MODERN WHALING ACTIVITIESWith numbers of Dall’s porpoises severely depleted in the Sea of Japan, hunters are targetingporpoises accompanied by calves. As the calves tire more quickly and the females will not abandonthem, they are, therefore, easier to catch. Although the hunters do not take them, abandoned calveswill inevitably die (Perry 1999).Baird’s beaked whale huntBaird’s beaked whales reach a length of 12.8 metres (42 ft). The Japanese government sets itself aquota for 62 of these rare whales to be taken in its coastal waters each year. The Scientific Committeeand Working Group on Whale Killing Methods of the IWC have not formally considered the huntbut since the moratorium was passed in 1982, 1032 Baird’s beaked whales have been killed in Japan’scoastal waters (EIA 1999).These whales have been hunted for several decades with heavy exploitation by Soviet and Japanesehunters until 1970. In 1952 alone, 332 whales were taken. In the 1970s the catch averaged 44whales per year and on the imposition of the moratorium in 1986, Japan set itself a quota of 40Baird’s beaked whales per year. In 1989, the quota was increased to 62 whales, with the claim thatthis was an emergency increase to be reduced if a coastal quota of 50 minke whales was granted toJapan. This was refused and Japan reduced the Baird’s beaked whale quota to 54 animals. In 1999the quota was arbitrarily increased to 62 whales.Killing methodsBaird’s beaked whales are hunted off the Pacific coast of Japan and in the Sea of Japan off the coast ofHakodate, Hokkaido, using 48-ton ‘small type’ whaling boats. In the Sea of Japan, the boats travel tothe feeding grounds (EIA 2003) where the whales are harpooned with a 50mm harpoon (Braund1989). There are indications that non-exploding or cold harpoons may be being used to kill some ofthe whales (EIA 2003). The cold harpoon was banned in 1980 by the IWC on welfare grounds(ICRW schedule). There is no information available on the implement used if the impact of the firstharpoon does not kill the whales immediately. Reports from people associated with the Sea of Japan