ENN-WWF Japan proposes partial lifting of commercial whaling ban

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http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/04/04022002/reu_46831.asp

 

WWF Japan proposes partial lifting of commercial

whaling ban

 

Tuesday, April 02, 2002

By Reuters

 

TOKYO — The Japanese branch of an international

environmental group said Monday that it would support

the partial lifting of an international ban on

commercial whaling on condition that all catches are

closely monitored.

 

Tokyo-based World Wide Fund for Nature Japan announced

its proposal to try to settle a 15-year-old dispute

between nations that favor whaling and those opposed

to it, said Shigeki Komori, a senior official of the

organization.

 

Komori said a limited hunt of abundant species would

have to be monitored by the International Whaling

Commission, which outlawed commercial whaling in 1986

to protect endangered whale populations.

Switzerland-based WWF is aware of the Japanese

branch's proposal but hasn't endorsed it, Komori

added.

 

The announcement comes just weeks before an

International Whaling Commission meeting in Japan's

southern port city of Shimonoseki in late April. The

proposal could help Japan's campaign to get the ban

lifted.

 

Greenpeace and other environmental groups expected to

attend the meeting remain opposed to commercial hunts.

 

 

Japan, which began research whaling in 1987, caught

more than 400 whales last year under the program. The

scientific hunt, which the Japanese government says it

conducts to gauge migration patterns, is permitted by

the International Whaling Commission.

 

Critics say Japan's catch is merely commercial whaling

in disguise, because the whales' meat is sold to

wholesalers after the studies are done and most of it

ends up in restaurants.

 

Komori said WWF Japan proposed a limited hunt to help

bring about a more level-headed dialogue. " It's about

time everyone should calm down, be realistic, and sit

and talk. We've done enough yelling and produced very

little, " he said.

 

Komori said his office is looking into Tokyo's claim

that whale numbers have recovered in recent years

thanks to the ban. Their recovery may account for

dwindling fishing hauls in Japan, he said, without

providing statistics.

 

Norway is the only nation that allows commercial

whaling in defiance of the IWC ban.

 

Copyright 2002, Reuters

 

 

 

 

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