Navigating a loophole: The Japanese whaling boat Yushin Maru in the Southern Ocean in January.

Credit: AFP

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SYDNEY: The Australian government hopes to close a loophole in International Whaling Commission (IWC) rules that allow Japan to conduct whaling as long as it is carried out for scientific research.

Environment Minister Peter Garrett said Australia would present a proposal to an IWC meeting in London, U.K., next week setting out new rules for scientific programs carried out under commission rules.

Favouring non-lethal methods

He said the new rules would favour non-lethal methods and strengthen IWC supervision of whale research, making it a collaborative international effort rather than having individual countries carry out their own programmes.

"Australia is full bore in our opposition to the killing of whales in the name of science," Garrett told reporters.

Under current rules introduced in 1986, commercial whaling is banned, but the giant mammals can be killed for scientific research purposes. Japan kills up to 1,000 whales annually under its scientific program, although it concedes most of the meat ends up on dinner plates.

The issue has created tension between Tokyo and Canberra, which opposes whaling and this year sent a ship to monitor Japan's whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean. It has also led to high-seas confrontations between whalers and environmentalists determined to stop the cull.

Conservation ambitions

Garrett said Japan might scale down its whaling program if it could no longer argue it was legitimate scientific research carried out under IWC rules. He said the IWC could oversee robust scientific program aimed at whale conservation "not simply signing off on the killing of whales in the name of science".

"It can start to use science and (address) the great concern Australians and many other people in the world have about the death of these whales, and develop conservation as a major ambition for the commission," he said.

However, Japan has indicated that it might pull out of the IWC framework altogether if further restrictions are placed upon it. It says its whaling is legal and part of its culture and accuses Western countries, led by Australia, of insensitivity.

Japan met last week with 12 developing nations in a bid to persuade them to join the IWC and boost its clout in the deadlocked negotiations.