AN ANALYSIS OF JAPANESE WHALE KILLING DATA WITH SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON THE USE OF THE ELECTRIC LANCE AS A SECONDARY KILLING METHOD

Abstract

During the IWC Workshops on whale killing methods in 1992 and 1995 Japanese whalers were criticized for the use of the electric lance as a secondary killing method. It was claimed, especially by Australian scientists, that the use of the electric lance resulted in long survival times and much suffering. The times to death for 891 whales were analysed by logistic regression and Cox regression. For 560 of these a secondary killing method was used; the electric lance was used in 326 cases, and a cold harpoon in 234 cases. The median killing time for the electric lance was 40 s and for the cold harpoon 4.7 minutes. The analyses showed that the electric lance killed the whales much faster than the cold harpoon. At the time, Japanese laws did not allow the crew to keep firearms on board fishing or whaling vessels. These laws have been changed, and today the use of a shot from a rifle through the brain of the whale is the preferred secondary killing method.