For the past twenty-five years, Japan has been engaging in "scientific whaling" as a way of getting around the ban on commercial whaling. Now, South Korea wants to get into the act too:
South Korea is proposing to hunt whales under regulations permitting scientific research whaling, echoing the programmes of its neighbour, Japan.Because obviously, assessing whale stocks requires killing and eating them, rather than mucking around with cameras, GPS tags, and databases.Hunting would take place near the Korean coast on minke whales. How many would be caught is unclear.
The South Korean delegation to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) said the research was needed "for the proper assessment of whale stocks".
This isn't science - its using "science" as a cover for commercial exploitation. And the IWC should not permit it.