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The Institute of Cetacean Research
日本鯨類研究所

A whaling harpoon.
Abbreviation	ICR
Formation	1947
Headquarters	Japan
Parent organization	Japan Fisheries Agency
Website	http://www.icrwhale.org

The Institute of Cetacean Research: (ICR, 日本鯨類研究所, Nihon Geirui Kenkyūjo) is a Japanese government-sponsored institution. It took over from the Whale Research Institute (founded in 1947), which grew out of the Nakabe Scientific Research Centre (founded in 1941).

The Whales Research Institute conducted research based on catches from commercial whaling. After the International Whaling Commission (IWC) moratorium on commercial whaling, the ICR was established to continue the scientific research.

Many environmental groups as well as some governments (Australia in particular) dismiss the Japanese research as "a disguise for commercial whaling, which is banned." The Institute has also been called the "Japanese's Government's whalers", and the Japanese government is reported to subsidise their operations with millions of dollars each year, despite the whale catch being sold commercially by the research program.

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Controversy

Claims of research

In an open letter to the Japanese government, published in 2002 in the New York Times and sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), 21 scientists declared that they "believe Japan's whale 'research' program fails to meet minimum standards for credible science". They were "concerned that Japan's whaling program is not designed to answer scientific questions relevant to the management of whales; that Japan refuses to make the information it collects available for independent review; and that its research program lacks a testable hypothesis or other performance indicators consistent with accepted scientific standards". They accused Japan of "using the pretense of scientific research to evade its commitments to the world community".

The Institute of Cetacean Research responded by stating that it has produced numerous peer-reviewed articles on cetacean science and criticised the open letter as a case of scientists making judgment outside their own area of speciality, and attempted to raise concern about their responsibility to the public. The ICR further noted that the letter contained numerous errors of science and law, reflecting the level of care taken by the scientists endorsing the letter.

A WWF functionary responded in the same journal, pointing out that "identical criticisms of Japanese whaling had been published by expert whale biologists on the International Whaling Commission's Scientific Committee" and that three of the letter's authors defending the Japanese programs had failed to disclose significant financial and organizational ties to the whaling industry. In the same issue, twenty members of the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission confirmed "that the signers of the open letter correctly summarized criticisms made by researchers very familiar with Japanese scientific whaling", a fact omitted by the letter's critics, "betraying a selectiveness that pervades their article". According to them, "so little of any significance to IWC management can be obtained only from whaling catches that it is impossible to justify killing animals on this basis".

The International Whaling Commission's Scientific Committee has repeatedly expressed concern for the objectives and results obtained by the ICR. In a resolution in 2007, the IWC noted that "none of the goals of JARPA 1 had been reached, and that the results of the JARPA 1 programme are not required for management under the RMP " and called upon the Japanese government "to address the 31 recommendations listed in to the satisfaction of the Scientific Committee" and "to suspend indefinitely the lethal aspects of JARPA II conducted within the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary".

In 2008 the ICR was criticized when photographs released by the Australian government showed pictures of the ICR harpoon ship Yushin Maru No. 2 killing several different whales, and a mother whale and her calf being taken onboard the Nisshin Maru for processing.

Animal rights groups such as Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd Conservation Society have repeatedly clashed with the Institute's ships while they were occupied in whaling, trying to interrupt its activities.

Financial subsidies

There are estimates by the World Wildlife Fund that the Japanese government has had to invest $12 million into the 2008-09 hunt alone just to break even, and that subsidies in total have amounted to approximately $150 million since 1988.

See also

• Whaling
• Whaling in Japan

References

1. ^ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article3325580.ece date = 8 February 2008
2. ^ "About ICR". Institute of Cetacean Research. Retrieved 2009-02-11. {{cite web}}: External link in |author-link= (help)
3. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=aPhG1CfyPue0 date = 30 May 2007
4. Hardline warrior in war to save the whale - The New Zealand Herald, Monday 11 January 2010
5. ^ "Street Fight on the High Seas". The New Yorker. 2010-01-12. Retrieved 2010-01-16.
6. An open letter to the government of Japan on "scientific whaling", New York Times, May 2002.
7. http://www.icrwhale.org/JARPA91paper.htm
8. http://www.baleinesendirect.net/pdf/aron.pdf
9. Mott, Richard N. (2003). "Neutral Judges in a Debate on Scientific Merits?". BioScience. 53: 203–204.
10. Clapham, Philipp J.; et al. (2003). "Whaling as Science". BioScience. 53: 210–212. {{cite journal}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |author2= (help)
11. "Resolution 2007-1; Resolution on JARPA" (PDF). {{cite web}}: Text "publisher International Whaling Commission" ignored (help)
12. "Australia has 'shocking' evidence of Japan's whaling: minister" (Document). Google. {{cite document}}: Unknown parameter |accessdate= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |url= ignored (help)
13. Sea Shepherd Turns the Tables on the Whalers (media release, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Sunday 03 January 2010. Accessed 2010-01-10.)

External links

• Institute of Cetacean Research
• Kristin Kaschner et al. Modeling and Mapping Trophic Overlap Between Marine Mammals and Commercial Fisheries in the North Atlantic

• Cetology
• Organizations based in Japan
• Whaling in Japan