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Japan Boycotts Whaling Meet After Conservation Vote

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Japan Boycotts Whaling Meet After Conservation Vote

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GERMANY: June 18, 2003

 

 

BERLIN - Japan launched a partial boycott of the International Whaling

Commission (IWC) meeting on Tuesday after anti-whaling nations backed

protection measures that could tear the polarized organization apart.

 

 

In a sharp shift for the 57-year-old Commission, members voted 25 to 20 on

Monday to create a conservation committee -- a move Japan, and other

pro-whalers, say will irrevocably alter the nature of the IWC, originally

set up to manage whaling.

 

A Japanese fisheries official said on Tuesday Japan would consider

withdrawing permanently from the IWC.

 

The Japanese delegation boycotted an initial session of the Berlin talks

devoted to whale stocks and said it would walk out of the meeting before the

IWC discusses whale killing methods, arguing members should only discuss how

to divide up stocks.

 

" We are not attending the parts that shouldn't be discussed. It's part of a

decision not to waste time, " a spokesman said.

 

Monday's vote exposed the deep splits in the IWC between pro-whalers, led by

Japan and Norway, that are keen to allow limited whale catches, and those

such as the United States and many European states pushing to give greater

protection to the planet's biggest mammals.

 

The committee could make recommendations on tackling the threats facing

whales, dolphins and porpoises.

 

Japan believes that endangered whales should be protected but that others,

such as the more than one million minkes, are in no danger of dying out.

 

It stopped commercial whaling in 1986 in line with an IWC moratorium but

takes several hundred whales each year in what it calls scientific research

whaling. Much of the " research " meat still lands on store shelves and

restaurant tables.

 

Takanori Nagatomo, at the Whaling Division of Japan's Fisheries Agency, said

Japan would ideally prefer to work within the framework of the IWC, which

still remains the only world body devoted specifically to whales.

 

However, he said its position had become more difficult as the organization

had swung toward conservation.

 

" There are some who say that Japan's membership has become a waste of

money, " he said.

 

These include a number of Japanese lawmakers, such as a group in the

dominant ruling Liberal Democratic Party who last week urged the government

to consider pulling out if the conservation initiative was passed.

 

(Additional reporting by Elaine Lies in Tokyo)

 

 

Story by Philip Blenkinsop

 

 

 

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE

 

 

 

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