Whaling

Butterfield Evans and Assocs. is representing the Tokyo-based Institute of Cetacean Research before the Trump administration and Congress on Japanese whaling policy.

Japan wants to resume commercial whaling, which was banned by the International Whaling Commission in 1986.

The IWC did grant Japan the right to conduct "scientific whaling," which the country claims is needed to gauge whether the whale population is stable enough to resume a commercial hunt. The IWC allowed Japan to kill 333 Antarctic minke whales last year. The meat was sold for human consumption.

Australia's ABC News reported Aug. 2 that Japan will propose to restructure the IWC at its September meeting in Brazil to pave the way for the reintroduction of commercial whaling.

Japan's lead IWC negotiator, Joji Morishita, will chair that meeting. Australia's government plans to fight the Japanese push.

Ian Butterfield oversees the ICR effort, which began June 1 and runs through March 31.

He's a former consultant at the Livingston Group, international government affairs director at Westinghouse Electric and member of the foreign policy team at the Heritage Foundation.