Another year, another opportunity for Japan to snub its international responsibilities by embarking on another brutal display of whale hunting – all supposedly in the name of science.
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Unfortunately, it would appear that appealing to the International Whaling Commission to stop Japan’s activities is now utterly pointless and futile.
So what is the solution to end this barbaric act? An act that sees more than 300 whales slaughtered every year. It’s a damn good question.
Anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd claims that the Japanese fleet killed a whale while inside Antarctic waters, which had been declared a protected sanctuary by Australia.
Activists also claimed that the kill was in direct defiance of an international court ruling that the hunt was illegal.
Not surprisingly, Japan has refused to recognise Australia's whale sanctuary, which was set up by John Howard's government back in 1999.
This week, Labor and the Greens have come out strongly against this whaling season and have called on the government to take stronger action against Japan. It’s a popular call, but one that hardly make much sense in the grand scheme of things.
The Japanese have already been pursued through the federal court in Australia over the programme, which resulted in a fine of $1 million. Japan refused to pay.
In 2014, Australia claimed a legal victory against Japan in the International Court of Justice. In defiance of the landmark ruling, Japan’s government withdrew from the court’s jurisdiction on all whaling cases.
Tasmanian Greens senator Nick McKim even went as far as to suggest that Australia’s Border Force shadow the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean to protect Australia’s waters.
Short of opening fire on the whaling fleet – which could potentially be considered an act of war – it’s difficult to see what purpose that would serve if Japan doesn’t recognise the sanctuary.
The issue here is, only a small number of countries actually do recognise Australia’s claim to those waters. This could ultimately jeopardise the Antarctic treaty system, which rejects all territorial claims in the region.
The harsh reality is, no matter how distasteful or downright wrong Japan’s whaling program may be, the solution to bringing it to an end may ultimately rely on diplomacy rather than activism.
