Japan's Fisheries Agency announced on Nov. 22 that it will adjust its 2025 commercial whaling quotas, raising the minke whale catch limit from 25 to 56 while reducing the Bryde's whale quota from 187 to 154.
The proposed total allowable catch will be finalized during a Fisheries Policy Council meeting in late December.
The decision to increase the minke whale quota follows a recent assessment by Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research. The assessment found that although minke whale stock estimates have declined between 2019 and 2024, the changes are not statistically significant. This indicates that the decline does not necessarily reflect a depletion in the population.
A Fisheries Agency official told Undercurrent News that since commercial whaling resumed in July 2019, more comprehensive data has improved the scientific certainty of stock assessments compared to earlier evaluations.
For Bryde's whales, the reduced quota is linked to more females being caught in recent years. The adjustment aims to address sustainability concerns.
Japan revises catch limits every six years, making this the first update for both species since the country resumed commercial whaling in 2019. After accounting for bycatch from set nets, the final quotas are expected to be 56 for minke whales and 153 for Bryde's whales.
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