Stretching the truth: length data highlight falsification of Japanese sperm whale catch statistics in the Southern Hemisphere
Falsification of reports on Japanese catches of sperm whales ( Physeter macrocephalus ) is known to have occurred at both land whaling stations and in North Pacific factory fleets. Here, we conduct an analysis of pelagic sperm whale catches in the Southern Hemisphere: we compare true Soviet length d...
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crroyalsociety:10.1098/rsos.160506 2024-09-30T14:41:24+00:00 Stretching the truth: length data highlight falsification of Japanese sperm whale catch statistics in the Southern Hemisphere Clapham, Phillip J. Ivashchenko, Yulia V. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.160506 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.160506 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsos.160506 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Royal Society Open Science volume 3, issue 9, page 160506 ISSN 2054-5703 journal-article 2016 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.160506 2024-09-17T04:34:44Z Falsification of reports on Japanese catches of sperm whales ( Physeter macrocephalus ) is known to have occurred at both land whaling stations and in North Pacific factory fleets. Here, we conduct an analysis of pelagic sperm whale catches in the Southern Hemisphere: we compare true Soviet length data from the Yuri Dolgorukiy factory fleet during 1960–1975 to data for the same period reported to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) by Japan. Prior to implementation of the International Observer Scheme (IOS) in 1972, the Soviet fleet killed 5536 females, of which only 153 (2.8%) were at or above the minimum legal length of 11.6 m. During the same period, Japan killed 5799 females and reported that 5686 (98.5%) were of legal size, with 88.5% of the entire length distribution reported as being between 11.6 and 12.0 m. This unrealistic distribution, together with the fact that Japanese fleets were supposedly able to catch 37 times the number of legal-sized females as the Soviet fleet, indicates extensive falsification of catch data by Japan. Further evidence of misreporting is that females >11.5 m dropped to 9.1% of the Japanese catch after 1971, when the IOS made cheating much more difficult. That 99.6% of 10 433 males in the pre-IOS catch were also reported to be of legal size, indicates that illegal catches were not confined to females. We caution that the Japanese sperm whale data in the IWC Catch Database are unreliable and should not be used in population assessments. The ease with which illegal catches were apparently made underscores the past failures of the IWC to effectively regulate whaling. Article in Journal/Newspaper Physeter macrocephalus Sperm whale The Royal Society Pacific Royal Society Open Science 3 9 160506 |
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The Royal Society |
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crroyalsociety |
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English |
description |
Falsification of reports on Japanese catches of sperm whales ( Physeter macrocephalus ) is known to have occurred at both land whaling stations and in North Pacific factory fleets. Here, we conduct an analysis of pelagic sperm whale catches in the Southern Hemisphere: we compare true Soviet length data from the Yuri Dolgorukiy factory fleet during 1960–1975 to data for the same period reported to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) by Japan. Prior to implementation of the International Observer Scheme (IOS) in 1972, the Soviet fleet killed 5536 females, of which only 153 (2.8%) were at or above the minimum legal length of 11.6 m. During the same period, Japan killed 5799 females and reported that 5686 (98.5%) were of legal size, with 88.5% of the entire length distribution reported as being between 11.6 and 12.0 m. This unrealistic distribution, together with the fact that Japanese fleets were supposedly able to catch 37 times the number of legal-sized females as the Soviet fleet, indicates extensive falsification of catch data by Japan. Further evidence of misreporting is that females >11.5 m dropped to 9.1% of the Japanese catch after 1971, when the IOS made cheating much more difficult. That 99.6% of 10 433 males in the pre-IOS catch were also reported to be of legal size, indicates that illegal catches were not confined to females. We caution that the Japanese sperm whale data in the IWC Catch Database are unreliable and should not be used in population assessments. The ease with which illegal catches were apparently made underscores the past failures of the IWC to effectively regulate whaling. |
author2 |
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Clapham, Phillip J. Ivashchenko, Yulia V. |
spellingShingle |
Clapham, Phillip J. Ivashchenko, Yulia V. Stretching the truth: length data highlight falsification of Japanese sperm whale catch statistics in the Southern Hemisphere |
author_facet |
Clapham, Phillip J. Ivashchenko, Yulia V. |
author_sort |
Clapham, Phillip J. |
title |
Stretching the truth: length data highlight falsification of Japanese sperm whale catch statistics in the Southern Hemisphere |
title_short |
Stretching the truth: length data highlight falsification of Japanese sperm whale catch statistics in the Southern Hemisphere |
title_full |
Stretching the truth: length data highlight falsification of Japanese sperm whale catch statistics in the Southern Hemisphere |
title_fullStr |
Stretching the truth: length data highlight falsification of Japanese sperm whale catch statistics in the Southern Hemisphere |
title_full_unstemmed |
Stretching the truth: length data highlight falsification of Japanese sperm whale catch statistics in the Southern Hemisphere |
title_sort |
stretching the truth: length data highlight falsification of japanese sperm whale catch statistics in the southern hemisphere |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.160506 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.160506 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsos.160506 |
geographic |
Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Pacific |
genre |
Physeter macrocephalus Sperm whale |
genre_facet |
Physeter macrocephalus Sperm whale |
op_source |
Royal Society Open Science volume 3, issue 9, page 160506 ISSN 2054-5703 |
op_rights |
https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.160506 |
container_title |
Royal Society Open Science |
container_volume |
3 |
container_issue |
9 |
container_start_page |
160506 |
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1811643789970767872 |