Southern Ocean. The Humane Society International has won permission to proceed with a court case against the Japanese Fishing Agency hunting whales in Australia’s Waters.

The Southern Ocean Sanctuary area is considered by Australia, the UK, France, Norway and New Zealand to be under Australian jurisdiction. Previously, Environment Minister, Senator Ian Campbell, was reluctant to approve the legal move, saying that it may damage diplomatic relations between Japan and Australia. Japanese boats are hunting in the Sanctuary and under Australian Law it is illegal to kill or harm whales.

In a landmark decision, the Federal Court has given the go ahead by overturning the Minister’s decision and allowing The Humane Society to proceed with the court case. A recent report on Japan’s whale research programme has outraged conservation groups. The report found that 90 per cent of Japan’s whale catch was taken from Australian waters and that more than half of the female whales caught under the “scientific whale cull” were pregnant.

The Australian Government has made continuous calls to Japan to respect the Southern Ocean Sanctuary. Senator Campbell says Japan has clearly breached its international obligations. “What Japanese whalers are doing in the Southern Ocean is not science. It is simply thinly-veiled commercial whaling”, he said. “The information required to meet these [scientific] objectives is precisely the type of data that Australia has already collected – without killing a single whale”, He stressed.

The Australian Government does not believe that court action will bring a successful outcome to the whaling issue.

Sarah Curran