The detention in Greenland of anti-whaling campaigner Paul Watson pending possible extradition to Japan has turned the spotlight on the widely condemned practice of hunting whales.

A 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling allowed numbers to recover following centuries of hunting that decimated the population to near-extinction.

Today three countries still permit the practice — Japan, Norway and Iceland.

Beyond the moral case against whaling, as made in campaigns such Watson’s, what is the science driving the arguments both for and against the practice?

– ‘Scientific’ whaling? –

In 2019 Japan quit the International Whaling Commission moratorium and resumed commercial whaling inside its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone.

Before this, Japan had been pursuing “scientific research” whaling since 1987, arguing some data could only be collected from dead carcasses.

But the evidence to support the claim was thin, Paul Rodhouse, fellow of the Marine Biological Association in Britain, told AFP.

“There seems to be very little justification for scientific whaling and […]