The Depths of the Caribbean’s Whaling Issue

Recent months have seen the resumption of commercial whaling by Japanese ships. For pro-whaling authorities in Japan, this is a return to normalcy after three decades when the Asian nation continued to whale under the auspices of ‘scientific research’, but did so in more limited quantities owing to international pressure.  

For critics, this is a horrific return to the bad, old days of whaling when the practice occurred with no consideration of the environmental effects — something that is recognized even more in 2019 than it was in 1989. 

Whaling today is an issue whereby international trends are driving new dynamics in the Caribbean. In order to understand where the region goes from here, it’s crucial to understand the local impact of global changes.

How We Got Here

In the late 1980s commercial whaling largely ceased within the international community. Despite this, some nations continued, for varying reasons. While Japan argubally bears the brunt of international outcry given the prominence of its programme, it is not the only nation that has continued to whale.  

The reasons the Japanese government supports commercial whaling are complex. Over time, substantial opposition to the practice has grown among Japanese, especially younger generations, yet Japan’s present advocacy for commercial whaling is an issue of anguish for many globally. 

Of the nations that have continued whaling, only Norway has direct comparisons to Japan, issuing a permit to catch 1,278 whales in 2018. Other countries, such as the United States (within Alaska), Canada and Denmark’s self-governing territory of the Faroe Islands, have continued hunting under the umbrella of ‘tradition’. The number hunted by each nation varies each year, but typically is around 500 or under.

Countries that allow aboriginal whaling as part of tradition may not be supported by people abroad but the link between tradition and the justification for whaling on the part of its supporters is generally pretty clear. Many of the tribes that continue to whale live a deeply traditional way of life.

Within the Caribbean, whaling has continued in some instances beyond the 1980s, yet the justification for it, based on tradition, has been challenged in recent years, especially given the real risks that tradition poses to the present and future generations of the Caribbean family.

The St Vincent and the Grenadines Story

St Vincent and the Grenadines is the most prominent example of the whaling debate in the Caribbean today, owing to aboriginal whaling clashing with tourism. It has also delivered up damaging scenes for the nation’s tourism industry, as in 2017 when tourists on a whale sightseeing boat witnessed three whaler men kill two orcas.

In the fallout, Thomson Cruises cancelled all future whale tours in St Vincent and the Grenadines and said it would not offer such tours again until whaling is banned by the government. Like so many other Caribbean countries, tourism is an essential lifeblood to the economy of St Vincent and the Grenadines. Given the competition in the region for the tourism dollar — based on the promise of pristine beaches, luxury accommodation and a vibrant culture to explore — any bad press or setback to a country’s image can have a damaging impact on income, given the abundance of choice of tourist destinations. 

Beyond simply shielding tourists from a bloody sight, there has also been concern surrounding the effective regulation and administration of whale hunting. For example, claims were put forward in 2001 that hunters had illegally killed numerous calves, which they were not authorised to do. 

JAPAN AND THE CARIBBEAN 

The resumption of commercial whaling by Japan comes after many years of aid from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to members of the International Whaling Commission that are classified as microstates, such as Saint Lucia (which joined the IWC in 1981 following independence from Great Britain), St Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada.

JICA has, by many measures, been a positive force for good in the Caribbean. Indeed, in the 1990s JICA was the single biggest distributor of official development assistance in the world. Although it was subsequently surpassed by other nations in this field, Japan has remained an important contributor, providing more than US$5 billion in loans during 2012 alone. As a result, JICA has been a prominent wing of Japan’s foreign relationships abroad, and is a key reason why many citizens of countries that are a great geographical distance from Tokyo hold a personal affinity with the Land of the Rising Sun.

On the perception of Japanese influence and ‘aid for votes’, Dr. James Fletcher made comment in 2001 when he was Saint Lucia’s Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Dr Fletcher noted, “Much has been made of the aid provided by the Government of Japan to St. Lucia and other Caribbean countries, including accusations that this aid is offered as bribes for the votes of the Caribbean . . . the fact is that Japan extends economic aid to over 150 countries, among these being very strong anti-whaling nations like Brazil and India.”

Even allowing for different respective relationships between regional nations and Japan, official linkages have been made between aid and votes, such as in 2015 when Prime Minister Gaston Browne of Antigua & Barbuda said that his government continued to support Japan internationally “even on the controversial issue of whaling” and that it did so “knowing that you [Japan] have been a good development partner”.

Nations in the Caribbean will increasingly face a growing chasm between the traditional whaling practices in the region and support for Japan. They have aspirations to keep growing the region’s economy via tourism and, in turn, promote strong action on combatting climate change which threatens the future viability of the Caribbean as a whole. On this basis, Japan’s aid work in the region can be seen as counterproductive, on the one hand granting aid that helps local fisheries, and on the other, seeking to enhance whaling that would fundamentally alter the ecosystem and cause immeasurable damage.

A New Beginning of the End?

Conservationists and animal rights activists may be anguished over Japan’s return to commercial whaling but there are some aspects that could offer a measure of hope. Having done away with the auspices of ‘scientific whaling’, Japan now faces direct criticism and pressure from the international community. What’s more, Japan will focus its whaling efforts within its own territorial waters (including the surrounding 320 kilometres of waters that serve as an exclusive economic zone).

There are also doubts about whether commercial whaling is even sustainable in 2019, with an expected lower market demand. It won’t be clear for some time whether this is the case but, as opposed to Japan’s resumption kicking off a whole new era, it could ultimately become a decisive last chapter in its commercial whaling history.

Whaling Food For Thought

For Caribbean nations, the ongoing whaling is a difficult issue when it comes to the broader efforts within the region to promote conservation and combat climate change. Just as commercial whaling is a bloody exception to Japan’s image as bubbly and friendly, regional nations seeking to raise international awareness of environmental issues may increasingly find that continued whaling practices diminish the sympathy for their wider cause of sustainability.