New IMO Rules May Force Japanese Whalers Out

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A vital vessel to the Japanese whaling fleet may be barred from the Antarctic as the United Nations International Maritime Organization tightens shipping regulations.

The Nisshin Maru doesn't meet three safety measures that will apply to Antarctic waters, according to an investigation by The Sydney Morning Herald. The new rules ban the whaling ship’s heavy fuel oil, require doubled hull strength instead of the ship's single hull, and will further forbid vessels from dumping thousands of tons of debris at sea.

The factory whaling ship dumps approximately 40 percent of whale carcasses each year, according to data from the government-funded Institute of Cetacean Research, which owns the vessel. During 2005-2006 it dumped 2,118 tons of bones, blood and body parts.

This week the IMO's marine environmental protection committee approved a ban on heavy fuel oil use in the Antarctic Treaty area — below 60 degrees south — by July 2011, excluding ships involved in safety or search-and-rescue operations.

The Antarctic Treaty System supported the tougher standards on the heels of several cruise ship sinkings. The MS Explorer, a Canadian cruise ship carrying 154 passengers, slipped under the surface after hitting submerged ice off Antarctica.

The Nisshin Maru lacks the ice strength and hull construction of most boats in polar waters. Cruise reports submitted to the International Whaling Commission by the Institute of Cetacean Research show the ship routinely travels through icebergs and loose pack ice.

The looming limits on shipping vessels will likely hobble the heavily subsidized Japanese whaling industry with costly expenses, perhaps enough to force the institute to stop whaling on the grounds of scientific research for the first time in 20 years.

Japan has engaged in research whaling since 1987, partially funding its research with proceeds from whale meat the Institute sells on the market.

Institute director Dr. Hiroshi Hatanaka has said that "birthing and mortality rates can only be obtained through lethal research and the number of whales taken in our research program is the smallest required to obtaining statistically valid information."

Anti-whaling countries such as Australia take issue with claims to hunt whales for scientific research. Opponents believe Japan has used the International Whaling Commission's scientific research provision to its whaling ban as a pretext to conduct subsidized commercial whaling.

From Article VIII of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling:

"…any Contracting Government may grant to any of its nationals a special permit authorizing that national to kill, take and treat whales for purposes of scientific research subject to such restrictions as to number and subject to such other conditions as the Contracting Government thinks fit, and the killing, taking, and treating of whales in accordance with the provisions of this Article shall be exempt from the operation of this Convention. Each Contracting Government shall report at once to the Commission all such authorizations which it has granted. Each Contracting Government may at any time revoke any such special permit which it has granted.

Any whales taken under these special permits shall so far as practicable be processed and the proceeds shall be dealt with in accordance with directions issued by the Government by which the permit was granted."

Said John Francis, director of the Maritime Transport Policy Center at the Australian Maritime College: "Even though a growing percentage of Japanese ships are not operated under their flag, they still maintain very high standards."

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