Whaling body backs conservation in divisive vote

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Whaling body backs conservation in divisive vote

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GERMANY: June 18, 2003

 

 

BERLIN ‹ The International Whaling Commission on Monday adopted a

conservation motion that ecology groups hailed as essential to preserving

endangered whales and dolphins, but whalers said the move could wreck the

world body.

 

 

In a sharp shift for the 57-year-old organization, the polarized members

voted 25 to 20 to create a conservation committee that could make

recommendations about problems facing marine mammals, or cetaceans.

 

Whaling nation Japan said it would not participate in the committee and was

considering withdrawing from the IWC after the vote.

 

The IWC is deeply split between pro-whalers, led by Japan and Norway and

supported by many Caribbean islands, that want to reintroduce commercial

whaling, and countries such as the United States and many European nations

that favor more restrictions.

 

The conservation committee, to start work in 2004, could advise on cetaceans

being trapped and drowned in fish nets, toxins in the oceans, climate

change, and the use of sonar, which environmentalists say threatens whales

with extinction.

 

" This is excellent news. There is a crisis in our oceans, " said Richard

Page, oceans campaigner for Greenpeace. " It should prioritize and strengthen

the conservation agenda. "

 

Outside the meeting, about 400 local schoolchidren, many with whales painted

on their faces, rode a mock whaling ship and carried giant cardboard whales

in a bid to push a 'yes' vote.

 

The 50 IWC members, which include landlocked nations Switzerland and

Mongolia, have achieved little but stalemate in recent years, since

suspending commercial whaling in 1986 and establishing an Antarctic

sanctuary in 1994.

 

MEMBERS DIVIDED

 

Pro-whaling nations, which still catch around 1,600 whales per year, have

said the IWC's sole purpose should be to determine sustainable quotas and

insisted certain species, such as Minke whales, are abundant.

 

After the vote Japan's delegate, Masayuki Komatsu, said, " A possibility is

withdrawal from the commission itself. "

 

Rune Frovik, secretary of the High North Alliance, a Norwegian-based lobby

group representing whalers and other Arctic communities, was more blunt,

saying the IWC had been hijacked by conservative demands with no thought for

whalers.

 

" It is one nail in the IWC coffin, " he said.

 

Mexico, a staunch antiwhaling nation and key sponsor of the proposal, said

the IWC had consistently dealt with conservation issues since its founding

in 1946 as a group of whaling nations dividing up their catches, and that

the formation of a committee institutionalized the trend.

 

 

Story by Philip Blenkinsop