Australia Issues Ultimatum on Japanese Whaling

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd issued a November ultimatum for Japan to cease its whale hunt in the Antarctic ocean. Rudd, who is the federal leader of Australia's leftist Labor party, has long been an anti-whaling advocate and says that he would prefer to solve the whaling issue politically rather than legally. Rudd said that if a political agreement could not be reached, Australia would seek an immediate injunction against Japanese whaling in the Antarctic.

The Japanese government responded harshly, saying that legal action would result in a virtually assured dismissal. Australian maritime law expert Don Rothwell disagrees, saying that "in general terms, the argument will be framed around Japan’s interpretation of Article 8 of the whaling convention and whether or not Japan has a unilateral and unlimited right to engage in so-called scientific whaling." While many anti-whaling countries say that Japan's lethal research is merely a front for commercial whaling, Japanese researchers contend that the work is necessary to understand why Minke whales are so prolific, and what level of slaughter the global population can sustain.

Minke whales are a non-endangered species that experienced a population boom in the 90s; they are estimated to have a global population exceeding 750,000. Japan's annual whaling quota is typically set near 1,000 whales, representing about .1% of the total population. In comparison, hunting licences for land mammals like deer and elk can approach 25% of the current population. Groups like Sierra Club and Sea Shepherd have called the Japanese whale hunts "barbaric" due to the near-sapient curiosity of most whale species. Japan, a country that has a long history of whaling, disagrees. Japanese delegates to the International Whaling Commission went as far to call prolific minke whales "cockroaches of the sea."

Japan has threatened to prosecute Sea Shepherd activist Pete Bethune with assault and trespassing when the whaling fleet returns to Japan in three to four weeks. Bethune has been held in custody on a Japanese whaling vessel since he secretly boarded it earlier this week. Japanese political pundits have pointed out political weakness in Australian PM Kevin Rudd's administration as the key motivator to this latest move. After a double failure to pass cap-and-trade legislation, Australia's parliament is in position to call for an early election to depose the current prime minister.

This is not the first time Prime Minister Rudd has delivered an ultimatum to the Japanese for their whaling actions, which may explain why Japanese lawmakers are scoffing at Rudd's remarks. "Japan's research whaling is a legal practice carried out in public waters under the international convention, said foreign minister Katsuya Okada of Rudd's remarks. “I will explain this position of Japan in the meeting with Prime Minister Rudd ... I want to discuss this matter calmly since the Japan-Australia bilateral relationship is very significant."

Japan's new left-center government strongly supports whaling, which it says has been a tradition in Japan for hundreds of years. While Rudd was given praise for owning up to old campaign promises to end Japanese whaling, the Prime Minister received sharp criticism from some Australians for threatening the country that serves as their biggest export market.