Korean Job Discussion Forums

[julian_w]

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��2. Re: INDENTIFICATION OF PRODUCTS FROM PROTECTED SPECIES AND STOCKS

Since the moratorium on commercial whaling took effect in 1986, the only documented and regulated source of whale products in Japan has been programmes for scientific research on minke whales. As part of this programme, Japan has killed up to 440 minke whales a year in the Antarctic since 1986 and another 100 minke whales a year in the western North Pacific since 1994.

An alternative source of minke whale products could be Norway (Mulvaney 1993), which continues to hunt minke whales in the North Atlantic under an objection to the moratorium. However, the last legal export of these products was in 1986 and current Norwegian domestic policy prohibits further export (Lasrson 1994).

South Korea has no programme of scientific whaling but reports that minke whales killed incidentally by coastal fisheries are the source of products sold openly in the commercial markets of some provinces (Mills et al. 1997). A national requirement to document these ��incidental takes�� has been in effect since 1996 and a summary of takes is reported annually to the IWC (Kim 1999).

Japan also allows the local distribution of products from whales taken incidentally by coastal fisheries but the reported number of these takes is small compared to the scientific hunt (see graph 3). In both Japan and Korea, there is no official programme for the mitigation of incidental takes and the market for these products is entirely unregulated. Both countries also allow the sale of products from small cetaceans (eg. Beaked whales, dolphins and porpoises) taken incidentally by coastal fisheries and, in Japan, by directed hunts. There is no consensus on the management of small cetaceans by the IWC and the international moratorium on hunting applies only to baleen whales and the sperm whale.

To test whether commercial products are derived exclusively from this limited documented whaling, we purchased whale products from retail outlets throughout the main islands of Japan from 1993 to early 1999 and in coastal cities along the south-east coast of Korea from 1994 to 1997. In most cases, the products were labeled or verbally described only as ��kujira��, the common name for whale in Japanese, or ��gorae��, the common name for whale in Korea. In a few cases, the products were labelled or referred to by the common name for whale species, such as ��blue��, ��fin��, ��minke��, etc., although these often proved to be inaccurate. Products labelled or referred to by common names for dolphin, porpoise or other cetaceans were avoided. ��

��3. Re: PREDICTED DECLINE OF THE PROTECTED J STOCK

Prior to its classification as a protected stock by the IWC in 1986, the J stock was subject to exploitation from whaling operations based in the Republic of Korea and, to a lesser extent, Japan. The total recorded catch of this stock from 1962 to 1986 was 13,734 animals (Kim 1999) with annual catches by Korea reaching a peak of 1,033 in 1977 (International Whaling Statistics 1988). In 1983, on the basis of declining catches per unit effort the IWC Scientific Committee concluded that the stock was depleted and recommended that it be classified as a protected stock (International Whaling Commission 1984). To allow for an orderly phase-out of whaling operations, the IWC delayed the imposition of the protected stock classification until 1986 when the general moratorium on commercial whaling also came into effect.

Given the depleted status of the J stock, the genetic evidence of continuing unregulated takes are of concern for the recovery prospects and perhaps survival of this population.��

4. CONCLUSIONS

��The results of out six-year survey of whale markets allowed us to answer theree basic questions concerning the effectiveness of the current moratorium and management of limited scientific hunting and incidental takes.

First, are the whale products sold in the commercial markets of Japan and Korea derived excludively from the species taken by regulated scientific hunting? No, the products from the Japanese market included seven species protected by the moratorium. ... The Korean commercial market in whale products is apparently sustained by a level of incidental takes from coastal fisheries that approaches the level of commercial takes for some years prior to the moratorium. Although an effort has been made to document these takes, there has been no reported effort towards mitigation or regulation of this exploitation.

Second, are products from the species taken by regulated scientific hunting (ie. minke whales) derived from abundant stocks? No, the frequency of the Japanese market products with characteristic haplotypes of the protected J stock was approximately sixfold greater than that found in the catch from scientific hunting of the O stock. ��

Third, what is the relative extent or market proportion of undocumented whale products in Japanese retail markets?
�� the products from protected species and protected stocks accounted for [an estimated] 17% of the total Japanese market.

����There is no �� uncertainty in the conservation implications of our results for the J stock of North Pacific minke whales. The IWC assessment of this stock highlights its unique life-history parameters and genetic isolation as well as its severe depletion as a result of past commercial hunting. ...
��Our simulations of the population impact of continuing undocumented exploitation highlight the current threat to survival of this stock and the need for urgent action to address this management failure. For levels of incidental takes consistent with the market proportion of J-stock products (150 whales per year), the stock is predicted to decline towards extinction over the next several decades. Several assumptions used in the model and in our calculations could lead to an underestimation of the true takes. More importantly, we assumed that all undocumented products originate only from incidental takes rather than directed illegal hunting of these whales. If these assumptions were violated, the decline of the J stock could be precipitous.

��For the J stock to avoid further depletion or extinction, every effort must be made to reduce the total take in Japanese and Korean waters to less than 50 animals per year. For this stock to recover, incidental or illegal directed takes must be reduced to levels approaching zero. Full protection for the J stock and other whale species, as intended by the moratorium, cannot be assured until scientific whaling and the sale and distribution of incidental takes are brought under full and transparent accountability.��

Find graphs and the guts of this report online here:
http://www.sbs.auckland.ac.nz/research/ecolevol/baker/

From a paper entitled:

Predicted decline of protected whales based on molecular genetic monitoring of Japanese and Korean markets
By CS Baker, GM Lento, F Cipriano and SR Palumbi
(First two from Auckland University, New Zealand, second two from Harvard University, USA)
Published by the Royal Society

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Highlights only...

All emphasise and typos mine.
JW

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