(JP) Aborigine whaling almost brings IWC to stalemate

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http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?np20020523a2.htm

 

REVISED MANAGEMENT SYSTEM DELAYED

Aborigine whaling almost brings IWC to stalemate

 

SHIMONOSEKI, Yamaguchi Pref. (Kyodo) The meeting of

the International Whaling Commission came close to

deadlock on its third day Wednesday, as member nations

staged a fierce tug of war over renewing special

hunting permits for indigenous people.

 

Although the issue of whether to complete a revised

management system for a resumption of commercial

whaling was to be discussed, wrangling over aboriginal

subsistence whaling extended into the afternoon.

 

The 48-member body made no progress in the morning on

the renewal and review of the permits, instead

focusing on procedural matters.

 

A Norwegian proposal to change the five-year 280-catch

limit on bowhead whales the United States and Russia

sought to renew to a two-year 102 limit threw the

meeting into confusion. The proposal eventually was

voted down 27-14.

 

Participants were also split on whether to put the

aboriginal catch limits to a vote or agree on them by

consensus.

 

Existing catch limits for aboriginal whaling

operations -- on Arctic bowhead whales, northeastern

Pacific gray whales, minke whales off Greenland, west

Greenland fin whales and north Atlantic humpback

whales off St. Vincent and the Grenadines -- are to

expire this year.

 

St. Vincent is planning to propose increasing its

annual catch limit on humpback whales to four from

two. Other concerned parties, such as the U.S., Russia

and Denmark, are to seek the renewal of their quotas.

 

According to documents available so far, two proposals

are to be submitted for the completion of the Revised

Management Scheme, one by Japan and another by a group

of antiwhaling nations.

 

Japan, the only country so far seeking to resume

commercial whaling in the Antarctic Ocean, plans to

call for lifting the body's 16-year-old moratorium on

the area and set catch limits on a range of whale

species under the RMS.

 

A group consisting of Sweden, Finland, Ireland, the

Netherlands, Oman, South Africa, Spain and

Switzerland, meanwhile, will propose leaving the 1982

moratorium intact, while adopting the RMS and limiting

whaling to noncommercial operations within the

exclusive economic zone of a member country.

 

In the plenary session through Friday, Japan also

plans to call on the IWC to support its controversial

research whaling program in the northwestern Pacific,

including new plans to catch 50 sei whales, considered

an endangered species, and 50 minke whales in coastal

waters.

 

However, the IWC will likely adopt, as it has in the

past, resolutions calling on Japan to halt its

research whaling.

 

A group of 19 antiwhaling countries, led by Mexico, is

planning a proposal calling for the IWC to " strongly

urge " Japan to refrain from carrying out its whaling

program in the northwestern Pacific.

 

The Japan Times: May 23, 2002

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