South Korea is planning to permit whaling again off of the country’s shores if Japan’s request to “formally” whale is granted at this year’s meeting of the International Whaling Commission.

Japan has been whaling illegally for several years, despite the International Whaling Commission’s global ban on whaling since 1986. While South Korea has more or less adhered to the whaling ban, they now would like to do it again.

An official from South Korea’s Food, Agriculture, Forestry, and Forestries Ministry said the following: “Korea bans whaling both for research and whaling in coastal waters, but we’ll revise regulations to lift the ban on the two types of whaling. We’ll report our stance to the International Whaling Commission in June.” The Korean government also claims that legalizing some whaling for research will help it to curtail illegal whaling.

Given the melodrama from last year’s International Whaling Commission meeting, it’s hard to know what to expect to happen with Japan’s request and subsequently Korea’s plans. Chile was host to last year’s meeting, and started the event off by permanently banning whaling off of its shores. There were also plans for the meeting to vote on creating a large whale sanctuary in the Atlantic Ocean, but at the urging of the meeting’s chairperson, the vote was put off to alleviate pressure on dissenting Japan. Despite the efforts at avoiding melodrama, Japan after the meeting said that “we are witnessing the death of the International Whaling Commission.”

South Korea’s move to permit whaling again comes at a time when awareness and debate about whaling has reached a new peak, in part because of the popular Animal Planet series “Whale Wars.”

Source: Go Media - Photo Credit: El Cap’n, Flickr

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