The government may reconsider its plan to resume whaling if there are other means to study marine mammals in Korean waters, officials said on Wednesday.

Amid mounting criticism from conservationists, the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries announced that it will decide whether to push for the project after consulting with members of the International Whaling Commission.

While the Fisheries Ministry had sought to tender a plan on whaling to the IWC scientific subcommittee this November, it clarified that the planned submission will also be decided via discussions with a variety of parties.

“Even if the government decides to submit a report of its whaling plans to the IWC in the future, whether the country actually resumes whaling for scientific research will depend on international regulations and procedures and it will fully respect the recommendations of the IWC scientific committee,” the ministry said in a statement.

Policymakers stressed that the report itself will be devised through close consultation with the IWC committee, as well as other concerned members of the whaling oversight commission.

But data showed that the nation has unofficially launched whaling for scientific research purposes since 2009.

According to the National Fisheries Research & Development, a total of nine whales were hunted down for research purposes under permission by the government over the past four years.

Whaling in a nation’s territorial waters does not need approval from the global society, according to ministry officials.

Through consultations with global organizations, Korea is poised to set how many whales it plans to catch, where and when.

Korea’s plan to start whaling for scientific research purposes at the cost of offending conservationist nations comes mainly out of complaints that the increasing number of the predators has been dealing a blow to the fishing industry.

The number of whales in the waters surrounding Korea has rapidly surged since the 1986 global moratorium to an estimated 86,000.

Whales eat about five percent of their weight every day, and people in the fishing industry claim that whales are consuming about 200,000 tons of fish including squid every year when Korea’s annual catch from coastal fishing is about 1 million tons, according to Fisheries Ministry officials.

“We need to conduct scientific research to verify the damage on the fishing industry, and that is the main reason for the whaling plan,” an official said.

Japan continued to hunt whales even after 1986 using the scientific research provision, enraging environmentalists.

The Korean Federation for Environmental Movement slammed the Seoul government for following Japan.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)