“It is important not to lose our food culture” says Professor Takashi Matsuishi, adding that whale should be used “sustainably based on scientific evidence.”
After IWC68, the institution must adapt to include member countries deeply divided in their views toward living marine resources and values of sustainable use.
Overall, in IWC68 the process intended to produce fairness under Western standards was incapable of meeting the needs of developing countries.
The IWC68 financial crisis highlights the IWC’s reduced priority for scientific decision making and raises concerns among pro-sustainable use nations.
The resumption of commercial whaling was not Japan’s only policy goal at IWC68. Another policy goal was to uphold and promote the principle of sustainable use.
Lessons in sustainability at NAMMCO showed why the whaling issue is not easily tidied away by declaring whether one is “for” or “against” hunting the animals.
In practice the IWC has already abandoned the management of whale resources and whaling, and the Western worldview caused this situation.
Not the whaling moratorium, but the defense and promotion of the general principle of sustainable use is the important policy issue for many countries.
Part 2 of 2 Read Part 1: INTERVIEW | Hidehiro Kato on Optimism for the Future of Whales In October 2022, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) will hold a meeting in Slovenia. This is the second of two articles based on a conversation with Dr Hidehiro Kato, one of Japan’sContinue Reading
Dr Kato naturally hoped that the IWC would act based on the scientific results of the research. But whales had become a totem of the environmental movement.