#读新闻学英语#澳大利亚日本为捕鲸对薄海牙国际法院

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澳大利亚日本为捕鲸对薄海牙国际法院
Court Hears Arguments on Whaling by Japan

                               
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The long battle over Japan’s killing of hundreds of whales during its annual hunting season moved to the International Court of Justice in The Hague on Wednesday, when hearings began into an Australian suit charging Japan with unlawful practices and with using so-called research as a front for commercial whaling.
一场因日本每年在捕鲸季杀死数百头鲸鱼而起的漫长争端，周三闹上了位于海牙的联合国国际法院(International Court of Justice)。该法院开始听取澳大利亚的起诉。澳大利亚指控日本非法操作，并且打着所谓研究的幌子进行商业捕鲸。


Both sides are treating the case about the world’s largest mammals as a high-stakes fight; the front rows of the courtroom were packed with lawyers and scientists from the two countries. New Zealand sent delegates to support Australia, and there were two representatives of Sea Shepherd, the conservation group based in the United States that has sent fast ships to harass and block Japan’s whaling fleet.
双方都很看重这一事关世界最大哺乳动物的案件。法庭前排坐满了两国的律师及科学家。新西兰派出代表支持澳大利亚，总部位于美国的保护组织海洋守护者协会(Sea Shepherd)的两名代表也在场。该协会曾派出快船骚扰和阻拦日本的捕鲸船。


Australia believes that in addition to being a front for commercial activity, Japan’s “research quota” catch of up to 1,000 whales a year violates a 1946 international convention regulating whaling, as well as a moratorium on commercial activity set by the International Whaling Commission in 1986, when the number of whales had fallen sharply.
澳大利亚相信，除了作为商业捕鲸的幌子，日本的“研究配额”每年捕鲸可达1000头，违反了一项管理捕鲸的1946年国际公约，以及1986年国际捕鲸委员会(International Whaling Commission)明确的中止商业捕鲸活动的协定，当时鲸鱼的数量正在锐减。


Japan has killed more than 10,000 whales since that ban went into force, according to the Australian government.
澳大利亚政府称，自从该禁令实行以来，日本已经杀死了逾1万头鲸鱼。


“We are saying what Japan is doing is blatantly commercial, it’s not science, it has to stop,” Bill Campbell, who heads Australia’s legal team, said in a telephone interview from The Hague. “You don’t kill 935 whales in a year to do scientific research, you don’t even need to kill one whale.”
澳大利亚法务团队负责人比尔·坎贝尔(Bill Campbell)在海牙接受电话采访时说：“我们说的是，日本正在做的事是公然的商业化行动，并非科学，需要停止。你不需要一年杀死935头鲸鱼用于做科研，你甚至一头鲸鱼都不需要杀死。”


Japan is the only country in the world that cites research as a reason for its whaling; two other countries, Norway and Iceland, offer different reasons for their hunting, Mr. Campbell said. But the present focus, he added, was on whaling in the Southern Ocean, which Australia has declared a whale sanctuary.
坎贝尔说日本是全球唯一以研究为由捕鲸的国家。另外两个国家挪威及冰岛为他们的捕鲸行动提出了不同的理由。但是他又提到，现在的争议焦点在南大洋(Southern Ocean)，该区域是被澳大利亚列为鲸鱼保护区的。


Over the next two weeks, Australia and Japan will make their case before 16 judges at the United Nations’ highest judicial body, in an international equivalent of a civil suit. Japan is expected to challenge the court’s jurisdiction. If that argument fails, it and Australia have said they will abide by the court’s ruling.
在接下来的两周里，澳大利亚及日本将会在这一联合国最高司法机构面前阐明各自的依据，庭审的性质相当于一种国际级的民事诉讼。预计日本会对这个法院的管辖权提出质疑。如果该争辩没能奏效，日本和澳大利亚都曾说过将接受法庭的裁决。


Japan’s lawyers are likely to argue that its hunt of mostly minke whales and some fin whales in the Southern Ocean off Antarctica is permitted by the 1946 whaling convention and the International Whaling Commission, which allow the killing of whales for scientific research.
日本的律师可能会争辩说，他们在环绕南极洲的南大洋里捕捉的鲸鱼大部分是小须鲸，也有一些长须鲸，是符合1946年捕鲸公约及国际国际捕鲸委员会的规定的，该委员会允许为科研目的而杀鲸。


A spokesman for the Japanese delegation, Noriyuki Shikata, said that there were more than 500,000 minke whales in the Antarctic region and that Japan’s research needs of about 815 minke whales per year were sustainable and well below the mammals’ reproductive rate.
日本代表团发言人四方敬之(Noriyuki Shikata)说，南极洲地区有逾50万小须鲸，而日本每年需要约815头小须鲸用于研究，是可持续的，远远低于这种哺乳动物的繁殖率。


Tokyo maintains that it needs data to monitor the impact of whales on its fishing industry and to keep tabs on the whale population’s recovery from overfishing; Japan hopes that may lead to a lifting of prohibitions.
东京方面坚称，他们需要数据来监测鲸鱼对其渔业的影响，并且密切注意经历了过度捕杀后的鲸鱼在数量上的恢复情况；日本希望最终能取消禁令。


A delegate for Sea Shepherd, Geert Vons, dismissed Japan’s arguments. “Scientists agree that you study behavior or dietary patterns when the animals are alive,” he said. “It’s well known that this is about selling and eating the whale meat.”
海洋守护者协会代表黑尔特·冯斯(Geert Vons)否定日本的论点。他说：“科学家认为，要研究动物的行为或饮食习性，应该是在该动物活着的情况下。众所周知，他们做的就是出售并食用鲸鱼肉。”


Critics in Japan have called on the government to stop its huge subsidies to the whaling fleet, as consumption of whale meat, long a delicacy, has declined and stockpiles of frozen whale meat have multiplied.
随着素来作为美食的鲸鱼肉消费量下降，而且冷冻鲸鱼肉存量翻了几倍，日本的批评人士呼吁政府停止给予捕鲸舰队巨额补助。


In the past two years, the fleet has run shorter seasons because, the Japanese Agriculture Ministry has said, “sabotage” by environmental activists has endangered the crews.
日本农业部称，在过去的两年里，舰队缩短了捕鱼期的时长，因为环保活动人士的“破坏”对船员的安全构成了威胁。


Both whalers and activists have accused each other of ramming ships. Whalers have said activists have tried to blind them by projecting laser beams onto their ships and have thrown ropes and hooks at their vessels’ propellers and rudders to disable them. The activists said the whalers and their allies had used water cannons and stun grenades to deter them.
捕鲸者及活动人士都指称己方船只遭到对方冲撞。捕鲸者称，活动人士试图用激光照射他们的船只，从而影响他们的视力，并且用绳子和钩子勾住他们的螺旋桨及船舵，使其不能使用。活动分子称，捕鲸者及其同伙使用了高压水炮和闪光弹来恐吓他们。


Japanese newspapers have reported that the country will insist on its right to continue its tradition of hunting, studying and eating whales because its government does not want to be seen as caving to Australian pressure or to “terrorist actions” by foreign environmentalists.
日本报纸报道称，日本将坚持继续其捕鲸、研究鲸鱼并食用鲸肉的传统权利，因为政府不希望被人认为在澳大利亚的压力或外国环保分子的“恐怖行动”面前屈服了。