Backdoor resumption of whaling feared

[Guest guest]

By Anthony Browne

 

LONDON: The world's endangered whales face the biggest threat to their

future since the moratorium on whaling was imposed more than a decade ago.

 

Environmental groups are warning that industrial-scale commercial whaling is

set to be reintroduced by the back door at the Convention on International

Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) being attended by 150 nations in Nairobi

this week.

 

The warning comes amid international concern that whaling nations have been

buying the support of developing nations with aid packages, and trading

votes with African countries which want to restart international trade in

ivory.

 

Trade in the meat of any of the great whales is illegal, but Norway and

Japan have put down resolutions at this week's meeting to allow trade in the

meat of minke whales and grey whales. The CITES meeting - the first for

three years - is billed as one of the most important for endangered animals

for decades. South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana want to use the convention

to restart international trade in ivory. Cuba is making a bid to restart

trade in hawksbill turtles.

 

Commercial whaling was banned by the International Whaling Commission in

1986, but whaling has continued for " scientific purposes. " Last week the

Japanese whaling fleet returned from Antarctic waters with a catch of 439

minke whales, up from 389 last year.

 

This meat can be sold only on local markets. But Japan and Norway now want

to open up the lucrative international trade in whale products. Whale sushi

is one of the most expensive delicacies in Japanese restaurants, with the

meat selling wholesale for several hundred dollars a kilo. Norwegians eat

whale steak, and also make whale sausages. However, they do not eat the

blubber, but have been storing it in vast warehouses until they can legally

export it to Japan.

 

Japan and Norway put down a similar resolution at the last convention three

years ago, and fell only nine votes short of victory. Since then they have

both invested many millions of pounds in intensive lobbying of poorer

nations to win their support.

 

Norway and Japan argue that there is no scientific reason to continue the

ban on minke and the grey whales, since their populations have returned to

healthy levels.

 

There are now thought to be about 900,000 minke whales, roughly the same

level as before whaling began, and the total grey whale population is steady

at around 20,000 - although the population of Asian grey whales has dwindled

to around 100. However, conservationists argue that restarting the legal

trade in whale products gives a huge incentive to increase the scale of

" scientific whaling " and will encourage illegal poaching. -Dawn/Observer

News Service © London Observer.