Whaling Row Follows Koizumi to Australia, New Zealand

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Whaling Row Follows Koizumi to Australia, New Zealand

Fri May 3, 8:26 AM ET

Bob Burton,Inter Press Service

 

CANBERRA, May 3 (IPS) - The just-finished visit to New

Zealand and Australia by Japanese Prime Minister

Junichiro Koizumi, aimed at discussing trade issues,

was dogged by protests against Tokyo's push at the

current International Whaling Commission (news - web

sites) (IWC) meeting for a resumption of commercial

whaling.

 

While Koizumi's tour was intended to focus on mutual

trading opportunities, wherever he went in Australia

and New Zealand he was dogged by protests over Japan's

policy on whaling.

 

" Koizumi san, save face, stop whaling, " read banners

held by Greenpeace protesters at his Wellington hotel

on Thursday night. He visited New Zealand from Sydney

and was returning to Tokyo Friday.

 

At the scheduled one-hour meeting with Koizumi on

Thursday night, New Zealand Prime Minister, Helen

Clark said would encouraged him to support the South

Pacific Whale Sanctuary proposal.

 

" I don't expect instant conversion on that, " Clark,

who has previously called Japan's 'research whaling'

''commercial whaling disguise'', told reporters.

 

Koizumi told the media that while the protection of

wildlife was important to the Japanese government, it

should be undertaken on a scientific basis. " We are

fully aware of New Zealand's position regarding

whaling ... but this position will not impede the good

relations we have between our two countries, " he said.

 

 

Japan is waging a vigorous lobbying campaign to

overturn the 16- year-old ban on commercial whaling at

annual meeting of the IWC. Japan gave up commercial

whaling in 1986 after an international moratorium on

it. It turned to " research whaling'' the next year.

 

While preliminary committee meetings of the commission

are already underway in the Japanese port city of

Shimonoseki southwest of Tokyo, the final

deliberations will not begin until May 20.

 

Earlier this week, the New Zealand government released

the joint submission by Australia and New Zealand to

the forthcoming IWC meeting that argued for the

declaration of a South Pacific Whale Sanctuary to

protect the migratory whales that were mercilessly

hunted over the last century.

 

" The proposed sanctuary would protect these (whale)

populations and allow their recovery,'' the submission

states. The proposed sanctuary would span from Papua

New Guinea in the west to Pitcairn Island in the east

and from Fiji and Tonga north to the equator.

 

In October 2001, a forum of South Pacific nation

leaders backed the proposal for a South Pacific Whale

Sanctuary. However, the proposal, rejected twice

before by the IWC, is likely to fall just short of the

required three-quarters of the votes of the 43 member

nations.

 

As a fall back option, South Pacific nations have

agreed to implement a ban on whaling within their

200-mile exclusive economic zones.

 

On Wednesday, the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea,

Sir Mekere Morauta, announced at the opening of

conference on marine mammals in Port Moresby that PNG

would declare all the oceans within its exclusive

economic zone as a whale sanctuary.

 

" Recent research shows that Papua New Guinea's waters

cover migratory routes and possibly contain important

breeding grounds for certain whale species,'' he said.

 

 

''Our decisions will help protect some of the whale

species that are at risk from commercial hunting. It

will also help protect the marine environment,'' he

added. In September 2001, the Cook Islands government

announced they had declared a whale sanctuary within

their exclusive economic zone.

 

The persistence of South Pacific nations in pressing

the case for the South Pacific Whale Sanctuary

irritates the Japanese Fisheries Agency, which argues

that whales consume vast quantities of fish and should

therefore be hunted to allow more productive

fisheries.

 

" They should leave their frivolous proposal for the

sanctuary at home " , a senior official of the Fisheries

Agency of Japan, Maseyuku Komatsu, said in a statement

early in April.

 

The confidence of the Japanese government that the

sanctuary proposal would be defeated is based on the

unwavering support it gains from Caribbean countries

it provides fisheries development aid to.

 

In an interview last year with Australian ABC TV,

Komatsu said that the Japanese government used the

" tools of diplomatic communications and promises of

overseas development aid to influence members of the

International Whaling Commission " .

 

Greenpeace claims that the Fisheries Agency of Japan

has now expanded its 'vote buying' efforts to

countries in West Africa.

 

While the Japanese Fisheries Agency may be enlisting

political support within the IWC, a survey of 3000

released in late March by the Japanese newspaper

'Asahi Shimbun' revealed that domestic support for

whaling was waning.

 

While the poll revealed that 47 percent of those

surveyed supported the continuation of whaling,

opposition to whaling has risen by 7 percent since a

similar survey in 1993.

 

While the South Pacific Whale Sanctuary proposal is

likely to be a major source of conflict at the

conference, the focus of Japan's lobbying efforts is

on the adoption of the " Revised Management Scheme "

(RMS).

 

The RMS is a set of rules that would govern any

resumption of commercial whaling, without which the

IWC moratorium on commercial whaling cannot be lifted.

 

 

Greenpeace is adamant that the efforts to develop the

RMS should be abandoned. " We believe is it unnecessary

and unwise to embark on development of a scheme whose

only purpose is to allow for a resumption of

commercial whaling " , it argues.

 

2002 OneWorld.net.

 

 

 

 

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