Fw: (Intl)Controversy swells around whaling commission meeting

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Masako Miyaji <masako_m_2000

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Thursday, June 29, 2000 8:50 PM

(Intl)Controversy swells around whaling commission meeting

 

 

> http://enn.com/news/enn-stories/2000/06/06292000/iwcmeeting_14307.asp

>

> ENN

>

> Controversy swells around whaling commission meeting

> Thursday, June 29, 2000

>

> By Margot Higgins

>

> The destiny of the world's fragile whale populations

> will be on the line beginning Monday when the

> International Whaling Commission opens its 52nd annual

> meeting in Adelaide, Australia.

>

> At a press conference hosted Wednesday by the

> International Fund for Animal Welfare,

> conservationists

> questioned how much power the commission has to

> protect whales from commercial trade.

>

> " Signed in the 1940s, the Convention on Whaling is a

> gentleman's agreement without enforcement provisions, "

> said Karen Steuer, director of commercial exploitation

> and trade of wild animals for the International Fund

> for Animal Welfare. " That would be fine if Japan knew

> how to act like a gentleman. "

>

> " Any major change to convention regulations requires a

> three-fourths vote, " Steuer explained. " Japan has a

> quarter block over the minority on most issues. That

> creates an uphill hurdle when it comes to increasing

> or decreasing protection for whales. "

>

> An association of more than 200 members from 40

> nations, the IWC was formed under the International

> Convention for the Regulation of Whaling on Dec. 2,

> 1946. In its role as the international authority for

> the conservation of whales and management of whaling,

> the commission banned commercial whaling in 1986.

>

> Several environmental groups, including the IFAW and

> the Worldwide Fund for Nature, suggest that Japan has

> used foreign aid to encourage developing nations to

> join the IWC and vote in the country's favor.

>

> " Japan tends to focus on small-island developing

> states with marine-focused economies and

> marine-focused cultures, " Steuer said. Recent

> inductees to the commission include St. Vincent, St.

> Lucia and Dominica.

> According to Steuer, all of the countries have sided

> with Japan on whaling issues.

>

> Together, this group could block the passage of the

> South Pacific Sanctuary proposed by the governments of

> Australia and New Zealand.

>

> The sanctuary would safeguard reproduction areas of

> whales already protected in their feeding grounds by

> the Southern Ocean Sanctuary, which was adopted by the

> IWC in 1994. Conservation groups say the sanctuary is

> necessary to complement and improve the effectiveness

> of the Southern Ocean Sanctuary in protecting

> migratory whale species.

>

> One of the most contentious issues surrounding this

> year's meeting lies beyond the vote of the commission.

>

>

> Using a clause in the whaling convention that allows

> states to grant special permits to themselves for

> whaling for " scientific purposes, " Japan has skirted

> the international moratorium on commercial whaling.

> " When the clause was passed it was assumed that it

> would be used in good faith, " Steuer said. " Japan has

> stretched the rules. "

>

> Since 1987, Japan has caught more than 4,000 minke

> whales. This year, in addition to its self-allocated

> annual kill of 540 minke whales, the country proposes

> to catch 50 Bryde's whales and 10 sperm whales for

> scientific research.

>

> " This is commercialization under the guise of

> science, " said Vassili Papastaurou, international

> whaling team coordinator for IFAW. " DNA studies show

> that there are various protected whale species on sale

> in Japanese markets. "

>

> One claim made by Japan to justify its research is

> that whales are in competition with humans for fish

> and thus have an adverse effect on commercial

> fisheries.

>

> Conservation groups don't buy that argument. Sperm

> whales, for example, feed mostly on deepwater squid, a

> species that is not consumed by humans, Papastaurou

> pointed out. " If ever there was an animal not

> responsible for depleting food human food sources,

> it's the sperm whale. "

>

> Many members of the conservation community argue that

> much of the scientific research could be conducted

> without harming the animals.

>

> " I said last year that a so-called scientific whaling

> program that had, by that time, killed nearly 3,000

> whales ... was not acceptacle, " said Jim McLay,

> commissioner for the New Zealand delegation at the IWC

> meeting in 1998. " Some 440 dead whales later I repeat

> that comment. There is no need to kill whales in order

> to research them. Adequate non-lethal means are

> available. "

>

> The IWC has passed several resolutions criticizing

> Japan's scientific whaling with no apparent effect,

> Steuer said.

>

> Environmental groups claim the scientific research

> sets the stage for Japan to resume commercial hunting.

> " We could see (Japan) return to commercial whaling out

> of the IWC over the next two to three years, " she

> warned.

>

> Unless Japan chooses to withdraw its proposal to

> expand scientific research, the request is likely to

> pass. But conservation groups believe internal

> pressure within Japan could sway the government. A

> recent poll conducted by a British research center

> revealed that only 11 percent of the population in

> Japan supports commercial whaling.

>

> " We need to inform people about what they may not have

> been aware of, " Steuer said. " The IWC's greatest power

> is influencing public opinion. When 40 nations of the

> world speak, it is very influential over

> policy-makers. "

>

> Copyright 2000, Environmental News Network

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