CANBERRA (Agencies via Xinhua) -- Australia strongly rebuked whaling nations yesterday, calling on Japan to end its scientific whaling programme and condemning Norway for increasing its commercial catch limit in 1997.
A joint statement from Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer and Environment Minister Robert Hill expressed Australia's disappointment at the continued refusal of the two countries to abide by international resolutions on whaling.
The plea comes as Japanese whaling vessels begin their annual hunt in the Southern Ocean, where they will kill up to 440 minke whales for what they describe as scientific purposes.
The ministers said Japan was acting against an International Whaling Commission (IWC) ruling in 1996 that called on Japan to stop issuing permits for the killing of minke whales in the Southern Ocean sanctuary and the north Pacific Ocean.
Japan should revise its research programmes so its scientific aims are achieved in a non-lethal way, they said.
"We deeply regret that Japan continues to ignore international opinion as expressed in resolutions of the IWC and we call on the Japanese Government to respect international opinion and to cease this unnecessary killing of whales," they said.
The ministers also criticized Norway for recently announcing it would increase its 1997 catch limit by 30 per cent to 580 minke whales. Norway resumed whaling in 1996, arguing that it was necessary for cultural and commercial reasons.
"Australia, among others, regards commercial whaling as both unnecessary and unacceptably cruel," the ministers said.
A resolution at the 1996 IWC meeting in Scotland called for a halt to whale-killing permits by Norway.
In 1982, the IWC agreed on a moratorium on commercial whaling. But Japan and Norway refused to sign the moratorium, leaving them beyond the IWC's jurisdiction.
Currently, 12 of about 80 species of whales are protected and populations are slowly recovering.