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Another victory for the whales at CITES

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Japan's Push for Grey Whale Refused

 

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Story Filed: Saturday, April 15, 2000 9:31 AM EDT

 

 

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- In a major setback Saturday, Japan lost its bid to

win international approval for limited trade of the grey whale.

 

In a secret ballot, 53 countries attending the U.N. conference on trade in

endangered species voted against a proposal that would have allowed

controlled trade of the whale. Forty countries voted in favor of the plan

and nine abstained.

 

The decision still could be overturned when the measure goes before a

plenary session of the 11th conference of the Convention on International

Trade in Endangered Species. Some 2,000 delegates representing 151 countries

are attending the 10-day forum in the Kenyan capital.

 

Despite the chance of a reversal, supporters of a continued total ban on any

trade in grey whale products were elated by Saturday's vote.

 

``This is a big victory for nature,'' said Kurt Oddekalv, president of the

Norwegian Environmental Organization.

 

Oddekalv predicted that three other proposals -- two from Japan and one from

Norway -- to permit trade in the minke whale would be voted down ``because

delegates act in blocs.''

 

Japan and Norway want approval for limited commercial fishing of minke

whales in areas of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Currently, such fishing

is outlawed.

 

In additional action on Friday:

 

-- CITES officials turned down a request by Kenya to allow controlled trade

of the pancake tortoise. Only 300 such tortoises are believed to exist in

the East African nation.

 

-- Citing lack of support from delegates, officials asked the United States

to withdraw its bid to place allow only limited trade in the bottlenose

dolphin.

 

-- A ban on all trade in ten medicinal plants was approved. ``We really have

to concentrate on the (plants) that are endangered and need help,'' said

Bertrand Von Arx, head of the CITES committee on plants.

 

-- Uganda and Malawi backed a continuation of Tanzania's annual export quota

of 1,600 Nile crocodiles.

 

 

 

2000 Associated Press Information Services, all rights reserved.

 

Japan Loses Key Vote on Trade in Gray Whales

 

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Story Filed: Saturday, April 15, 2000 8:07 AM EST

 

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Japan lost an important battle on Saturday in its

campaign to lift a ban on the commercial trade in gray whales.

 

Delegates at a 150-nation conference of the U.N. Convention on International

Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) rejected Japan's request to allow

commercial exploitation of gray whales in the eastern north Pacific.

 

Japan needed a two-thirds majority but, with 109 nations casting votes in a

secret ballot, only 40 voted for the proposal, 63 voted against and six

abstained.

 

But Japan and Norway were to make three further proposals later on Saturday

which, if approved, would allow commercial trade in specific populations of

the minke whale that they believe are not at risk of extinction.

 

There has been an international ban on all commercial whaling since 1986 and

on gray whales since 1949.

 

Grey whales, which can grow to 15 meters (yards) in length and 35 tons in

weight, are best known for an annual round-trip migration to warm bays off

Baja California in Mexico -- where they mate, give birth and nurse -- and

subsequent return to the waters of Alaska.

 

INDIGENOUS PEOPLE CAN HUNT GREY WHALES

 

The only people allowed to hunt gray whales are the native Chukchi people of

Russia and the Makah of the United States.

 

The Chukchi regularly take about 140 whales a year for local consumption and

the Makah are allowed up to five. Last year, they made their first catch in

many years.

 

Japanese officials said the proposal on the gray whales was the weakest of

the three to be put forward on Saturday, but also conceded they were not

optimistic about winning any of them.

 

The other two proposals call for the resumption of trade in minke whale

populations in Antarctica and the west Pacific.

 

Norway is requesting a return of trade in minke whales in the northeast and

north Atlantic and is widely believed to have a better chance of getting its

way than Japan.

 

Conservation groups welcomed the vote on the gray whale.

 

``It is clear so far that opinion is going against Japan and Norway and they

should withdraw their other proposals immediately,'' said John Frizell of

Greenpeace International.

 

``If any of these proposals are accepted, it would be a disaster for

whales,'' he said.

 

The International Whaling Commission imposed a worldwide moratorium on

commercial whaling in 1986.

 

Norway objected to the ban and has since caught minke whales in its coastal

waters for domestic consumption.

 

While Japan formally abides by the IWC ban, it still catches about 440 minke

whales a year in Antarctica under a clause which allows whaling for

scientific research. The meat and blubber of those whales is sold inside

Japan, where whale has long been viewed as a delicacy.

 

Japan on Saturday accused Western governments and conservation groups of

loading the whales debate with ''emotional baggage'' and trying to ``impose

their particular Western view of whales on the rest of the world.''

 

 

 

2000 Reuters Limited.

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