Japan's whaling fleet left port for the Antarctic last week. Japanese authorities defended the hunt, as usual, as legitimate scientific research. I and others have dealt with that contention almost ad nauseam, and the basic outlines of the argument are well known.
What makes this whaling season different from recent ones, however, is that environmentalists are allowing themselves to feel cautiously optimistic that the end of this seemingly endless battle may be near. Those who have attempted to characterize the issue as one of western bunny-huggers wanting to end a traditional hunt that, in the grand scheme of things, is a relatively insignificant environmental issue miss the point - either out of intention or ignorance. The point that whaling's critics make is that the International Whaling Commission long ago already made the decision that commercial whaling should at least pause, and that Japanese authorities are using the subterfuge of science to maintain an industry for which there is little if any public demand and which would assuredly die out without massive government subsidies.
Now, environmentalists are hoping those subsidies may be close to an end.
Commissioned to cut wasteful programs by Japan's new government, the Spending Review Committee recommended that the Overseas Fisheries Cooperation Fund (OFCF), which gives loans to the Institute for Cetacean Research (ICR) to run the "research whaling" program, have all of its funding revoked, except monies needed for loans in 2010.
The OFCF claims it needs 70.4 billion yen (around US$780 million) for various programs, including whaling, in 2010. The ICR has failed to repay government loans for several years now, as demand for whale meat has fallen further and the cost of whaling increased. The Review Committee and Cabinet Office will determine by early next year if the proposed operations for 2010 are actually “necessary” or should also be cut.
Few are expecting the rug to be pulled out from beneath whaling overnight. But the funding that surrounds much of the whaling industry - including helping to fly pro-whaling nations to IWC meetings - is in immediate jeopardy, and the cracks are showing in the castle wall.
It may not be as dramatic as this TV show, or even a book written by a certain blogger, but at the end of the day, Japan's commercial whaling may end in the same way in which it has managed to survive so far: by the accounting decisions of anonymous bureaucrats.
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