Licence to Krill: The Impact of Japan’s Scientific Research Whaling Programs on the Marine Ecosystem and the Carbon Cycle 🐋
Published:
Abstract
The International Whaling Commission’s (IWC) 1986 ban on commercial whaling was imposed in response to the overexploitation of whale stocks. However, Japan has continued to kill whales under the guise of scientific research programs. Whales are imperative in both the functioning of the carbon cycle and the role they play within the marine food chain. In this project, we focus on looking at the impact the Japanese whaling programs have had. We estimate the amount of carbon dioxide a Minke whale exports and establish the amount of carbon that was prevented from being exported from the atmosphere. We use a logistic growth model for Minke whales, their competitors and their predators to predict how each species would react to the killing of Minke whales. We find that competitors of Minke whales thrived while predators suffered relatively little.
- UCL Environmental Economics Module Research Project.
- Part of a team comprising of Sophie Williams and Sandra Arezina.
Presented at the Summer School for Economic Networks at the University of Oxford.
- Download paper here
