Japan sinks Pacific whale sanctuary proposal

[Guest guest]

Tuesday, July 4 2:54 PM SGT

 

ADELAIDE, Australia, July 4 (AFP) -

 

Japan and its pro-whaling allies popped the

champagne corks Tuesday after sinking a proposal

to create a Pacific

whale sanctuary.

 

The Australia/New Zealand initiative failed to

gain 75 percent of the vote needed at the

International Whaling

Commission's (IWC) annual talks here.

 

Of the 35 nations in attendence, 18 voted in

favour, 11 against and four abstained. Two

nations were absent from

the room at the crunch while six members had

failed to pay their annual fees and did not turn

up.

 

The decision is seen as a major victory for

Japan, which headed the push against the world's

third whale

sanctuary, and culminates a fierce batte of wits

and verbal jibes.

 

Tokyo, backed by Norway, based its arguement on

the proposal being scientifically dubious and

redundant as

long as a moratorium remained on commercial

whaling.

 

And it clearly won the lobbying battle,

persuading Denmark to join Norway, China, new

member Guinea and six

Caribbean nations in opposing the plan.

 

Japan's Far Seas Fisheries Division deputy

director Joji Morishita though was conciliatory

rather than jubilant,

aware that the proposal would be resubmitted to

the IWC talks in London next year.

 

" We are very happy, but it needs to be made clear

that we don't oppose a sanctuary par se, " he

said.

 

" What we are saying is that it is not scientific

to include all whales -- some whales, such as

minke, are abundant. "

 

Australia and New Zealand, with strong support

from Britain and the United States, based their

case on the

economic benefits that would flow from whale

watching rather than whale killing.

 

They also said it was pointless protecting the

feeding grounds of the great whales in the

Southern Ocean sanctuary

but not their breeding grounds and migratory

routes in the Pacific.

 

Australian Environment Minister Robert Hill put

on a brave face, but was clearly disappointed.

 

" I'm very disapponted but to get almost two

thirds of the vote on the first occasion, to

establish a very stong base

of support is a sound basis to go forward to the

next meeting (in London), " he told AFP.

 

But he lashed out the bloc vote by the Caribbean

nations.

 

" The thing I find most difficult to understand is

how a bloc vote fron the Caribbean can defeat the

aspirations of a

group of island states in the Pacific, " he said.

 

" There seems to be something funamentally wrong

with this. "

 

Japan has angrily denied claims that it bought

the Caribbean vote with hefty financial aid

packages, although

environmentalists turned up the heat Tuesday.

 

" This vote should have been about conserving the

world's remaining whale populations, not about

short-term

economic gain, " said Greenpeace's Sakiusa

Qereqeretabua.

 

" It is of deep concern that such an important

conservation step can be blocked by the economic

leverage of one

country. "

 

Morishita again dismissed the claims and instead

threw doubt on statements by anti-whalers that

the entire South

Pacific favoured a sanctuary.

 

" I know this isn't true, " he said. " I know four

or five countries are opposed. " He refused to

name them to save

them " being put under pressure " .

 

If the sanctuary had been given the go-ahead, its

western border would have joined the existing

Indian Ocean

sanctuary and its southern reaches the Southern

Ocean sanctuary -- effectively making almost all

Southern

Hemisphere oceans safe for whales.

 

Blue, fin, right and humpback whales are

considered the most severely depleted in the area

after an estimated 1.5

million were slaughtered last century, although

the IWC admits their status is " poorly known " .

 

 

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