Japanese lobbying to ease curbs on whale harvests

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Tuesday, April 16, 2002 - 11:22 a.m. Pacific

 

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Japanese lobbying to ease curbs on whale harvests

 

By Hal Bernton

Seattle Times staff reporter

 

Delegates arriving at the International Whaling

Commission meeting next month in Shimonoseki, Japan,

will be greeted by boisterous demonstrations — not in

protest but in favor of whaling.

 

This year's annual meeting takes place in the home

port of Japan's faded factory whaling fleet, which

harpoons hundreds of whales annually in the name of

science.

 

Six representatives from the Makah Tribe of northwest

Washington also will be at Shimonoseki to lobby for a

five-year extension of its existing quota, allowing

the tribe to take 20 gray whales through 2008. IWC

approval, though, is no sure bet.

 

Although the tribe has taken just one gray whale, in

1999, and no families have yet applied for a permit to

go hunting this spring, the tribe is adamant that it

wants to preserve its treaty right to do so in coming

years.

 

The Makah request will likely be a sideshow in a

meeting dominated by Japan's controversial agenda,

which includes expansion of its " scientific " whaling

program and its push to finalize rules for a new era

of commercial hunting.

 

The meetings, scheduled for the week of May 20, are

expected to draw delegations from at least 30 of the

43 member nations of the IWC.

 

" This is expected to be one of the most difficult

meetings of the past 20 years. There are a lot of big

issues on the table, " said Rollie Schmitten, federal

fishery official who will head the U.S. delegation to

the meeting.

 

In anticipation of a showdown over whaling, Japan is

trying to whip up homeland support by playing to its

seafaring island-nation traditions. Symposiums are

scheduled on Japan's storied whaling history and its

culinary skill in preparing whale meat.

 

Three motor caravans are touring the country promoting

whaling. Pro-whaling posters have popped up in railway

stations. To boost consumption, April 9 was proclaimed

" Eat More Whale Day. "

 

The campaign will culminate with a week of pro-whaling

demonstrations outside the commission meeting hall.

 

Also on hand — meeting, caucusing and striving to

influence the outcome — will be dozens of observers

drawn from the ranks of environmental and

animal-rights groups, as well as an international

potpourri of whalers ranging from the Grenadines to

the Makahs.

 

Japan's appetite for whale

 

The Japanese have been eating whales for centuries,

and in the difficult postwar years baleen products

were a staple. By the early 1960s, Shimonoseki was

home port to catcher boats, freezer ships and tankers

that killed thousands of whales a year. Supermarkets

sold the meat, and street vendors hawked a baleen

bacon.

 

Today, whale meat is a scarce item among a population

increasingly turning to other foodstuffs. According to

a survey published last month in the Japanese

newspaper Asahi Shimbun, only 4 percent of the

population say they sometimes eat whale, 53 percent

claim to have eaten whale " a long time ago, " and 33

percent say they have never eaten whale.

 

Despite the drop in consumption, Japan's government

remains deeply committed to whaling as part of a

broader claim to harvest resources from the sea.

 

Japan officially abides by an IWC moratorium on

commercial hunts of 13 species of whales. But through

the '90s, the Japanese government expanded its

" scientific " hunt that kills in the name of research

and helps meet expenses through the sale of whale meat

and byproducts.

 

If any of the commission delegates seeks a taste of

whale, there should be plenty on hand. The Shimonoseki

fleet earlier this month returned from Antarctica with

some 2,000 tons of fresh minke.

 

Despite the drop in consumption, Japan's government

remains deeply committed to whaling as part of a

broader claim to harvest resources from the sea. Japan

once found plenty of support on the commission.

 

IWC members at odds

 

Formed in 1946 to conserve 13 species of whales, the

IWC used to embrace commercial harvests. Indeed, its

initial goal was to use conservation to " thus make

possible the orderly development of the industry, "

according to its founding charter.

 

The whaling commission has no power to impose economic

sanctions but gets its clout through the international

legitimacy conferred to those who follow its rules.

 

Today, most of the 43 member nations support limited

hunting for aboriginal subsistence harvests. But they

are bitterly divided over commercial whaling. Some

members, including the United States, want to abandon

such kills in an age when whales have gained

international appeal as symbols of the marine

environment. They succeeded in passing a 1986

moratorium on commercial hunts of 13 species.

 

Other members, led by Japan and Norway, argue that

whales should be harvested — just like fish — on a

sustainable basis.

 

" We don't want to have huge commercial whaling like in

the past, " said Yagi Nobuyuki, the first secretary of

Japan's embassy in Washington, D.C. " We want to see a

reasonable harvest. "

 

Japan officially abides by an IWC moratorium on

commercial hunts of 13 species of whales. But through

the '90s, the Japanese government expanded its

" scientific " hunt that kills in the name of research

and helps meet expenses through the sale of whale meat

and byproducts.

 

Even with the moratorium in place, commercial whaling

continues. Norway, an IWC member nation, now hunts

minke whales in the North Atlantic.

 

At the May meeting in Japan, much of the agenda will

be taken over by Japan's bid for rules that could

someday regulate future commercial whaling.

 

But lifting the moratorium would require the support

of three-quarters of the IWC members. And Japan —

despite recruiting supporters with offers of financial

aid — still lacks the votes.

 

" That won't happen. I can guarantee it, " said

Schmitten, the U.S. delegation leader.

 

The Makah claim

 

In 1997, a Makah tribal delegation ventured to the IWC

meeting in Monaco to win approval for its

long-standing treaty right to hunt Pacific grays.

 

The Makah proposal triggered protests from dozens of

environmental and animal-rights activists, with some

fearing a Pacific Northwest hunt would open the door

to increased whaling elsewhere in the world.

 

At the Monaco meeting, the United States and Russia

brokered a deal: The Makah would get to take 20 whales

through 2002 as part of a 620-whale quota shared with

the struggling Eskimos and the Chukchi people of

Russia's Chukotka Peninsula.

 

 

" There was a lot of drama, and it took a lot of

arm-twisting, " said John Tichotsky, an Alaska Pacific

University professor who attended the meeting on

behalf of Russian and Alaskan Eskimos. " It was very

much touch and go. "

 

U.S. officials meanwhile want to renew the existing

Russian-Makah whale agreement, and there likely will

be protest.

 

Jim McClay, a New Zealand delegate to the commission,

said his nation " as a matter of general principal "

would prefer that the Russian and Makah quotas be put

to separate votes. But he wouldn't disclose whether

New Zealand would try to make that happen. " Quite

frankly I don't know what will happen. "

 

The Makah are hopeful that any opposition can be

quelled. " It is important to secure the quota, and we

will, " said Michael Lawrence, a Makah tribal council

member attending the Shimonoseki meeting.

 

But the commission process is notoriously

unpredictable, and U.S. government officials remain

cautious.

 

" What actually happens depends on the dynamics of the

meeting, " said one U.S. official who was at the Monaco

IWC meeting.

 

Japan seeks support

 

Japanese delegates — eager to assert cultural ties to

whaling among their own coastal communities —

supported the Makah quota. But so far, they've been

frustrated by their inability to gain commission

approval for coastal community whaling. Even the Makah

quota was publicly criticized by Austria, Australia,

New Zealand and other nations skeptical of a request

from a tribe that hadn't hunted whales in 70 years.

 

The Japanese also have chafed at the attitude of many

Western nations that cannot accept any commercial

hunts — no matter how healthy the stocks.

 

But Japan's aid to voting member nations may pay off.

 

For the first time in years, Japan may be able to

claim a simple majority of votes to gain IWC support

for a " scientific " hunt that sanctions whaling done in

the name of research.

 

'Research' gains claimed

 

This year, the " research " effort is the largest ever,

with 590 minke, 50 Byrde's, 50 Sei and 10 sperm whales

expected to fall to Japanese harpoons.

 

Japanese officials say such " scientific " hunting has

given them valuable information about whale

populations, and suggest that some more-abundant

species — such as minke — should be harvested to

reduce competition for endangered blue whales.

 

They also claim the research has documented the

whale's huge consumption of fish, and contend that

killing whales may free up more fish for humans.

 

U.S. commission delegates dismiss the research program

as an end run around the commercial-whaling

moratorium, with the Japanese using science as a cover

to kill whales for commercial markets. The commission

has previously rejected that request. Earlier this

year, the Japanese announced that the coastal

communities will take the 50 whales to help advance

science.

 

Japanese officials also angered conservationists with

a proposal disclosed in February to kill 50 Sei

whales, which are listed by the U.S. government under

the Endangered Species Act.

 

" To hunt these Sei whales, it doesn't make any sense, "

said Charlotte de Fontaubert, oceans campaign

coordinator for Greenpeace USA. " This has brought the

outrage over Japan to a new level. "

 

Hal Bernton can be reached at 206-464-2581 or

hbernton.

 

2002 The Seattle Times Company

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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