Japanese Dolphin and Porpoise Hunting

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Created on Tuesday, 17 October 2000 19:12

The course of Dolphin and Porpoise Hunts in Japan

After the moratorium was established at the IWC in 1986, the price of dolphin meat soared on the market, replacing whale meat as a substitute. In addition to the shift from whales to the dolphins, fishermen who used to be specialized in hand-harpooning spear fish switched over to dolphin hunts, in effect doubling the total dolphin catch. Following the expansion of the dolphin hunt industry, the drastic drop in the dolphin population was an alarming one. The Japanese government and the Fisheries Agency established a registration system for dolphin hunt vessels, moderating the size of the industry. In 1993, the government classified dolphin and whale species into the following categories in an attempt to control catch quota.

1. Species banned due to uncertain population. 
2. Species allowed to be taken due to their healthy stocks.
3. Species banned due to their poor stocks.

Also, each prefecture was assigned a dolphin catch quota according to the direct ratio to its track record in the past. Alarmingly, this figure has not changed since 1993 despite changes in local populations. Unfortunately, even with such regulations, cetacean population is not healthy in the local waters of Japan. This is seen in the set quota that is in some cases significantly higher than what is currently being caught, a drastic drop in the catches compared to the numbers seen in the past. (For example, the permitted quota for striped dolphin is 725, but only 596 were caught in 1999 and 449 in 1998. As a contrast, 2227 striped dolphins were caught in 1988 and 1225 were caught in 1989*.) Also seen is the shifting of the target dolphin species- as striped dolphin and pantropical spotted dolphin populations decreased to a point where the hunt could not sustain itself, the target species was changed to more abundant bottle nosed dolphins. A similar scenario to what the larger baleen whales had to face in the 1960's.

IWC entrusts the management of small cetaceans to each member country, but the concerned commission has been asking Japan to reduce the catch quota for striped dolphins and Dall's porpoises.

We suspect that the decline of the population is due to, in addition to the environmental degradation and human exploitation, the inefficient management. Inadequate monitoring system and population estimates, and the total lack of follow-up assessments all lead to the decreased populations, without accurate records of what is happening. In the end, the marine resource preservation the Japanese Fisheries Agency is trying to achieve cannot be done without the concept of wildlife conservation. The current situation reflects not the government's consideration for the long-term proliferation of marine wildlife, but the mere interest for the temporary preservation of the economical resource.