whales..doomed...doomed...doomed...

[Guest guest]

james t kirk where are you?

 

 

Are Whales Doomed? --

 

June 14, 2006 — By Dr. Susan Lieberman, WWF International

This week’s meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in the

Caribbean island nation of St Kitts and Nevis will once again prove to be a

bloody battleground between those for and those against whaling. The IWC adopted

a global moratorium on commercial whaling that became effective in 1986. With

this moratorium being challenged, the time may now be upon us to resuscitate the

“Save the Whales†campaigns that proved so successful in the 1980s.

 

Japan, through its 20-year pro-whaling lobbying strategy, is poised to claim

“victory†by gaining the majority of votes needed at the IWC to set in

course actions to dismantle the rules that protect whales and prepare the way

for the eventual full resumption of commercial whaling.

 

To achieve a simple majority of the 69 IWC member nations, the Japanese

government has been actively, and unabashedly, targeting West African countries

and small developing island states in the Caribbean and the Pacific to vote in

favor of their pro-whaling agenda.

 

Even with the current whaling moratorium, Japan has been able to continue

hunting whales under an IWC loophole that allows for “scientific whaling†by

killing whales to allegedly investigate their biology and migratory pathways.

This activity is unregulated, scientifically unwarranted, and flagrantly carried

out in protected areas, particularly the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary, which

WWF helped to establish. “Scientific whaling†is heavily subsidized by the

government of Japan and is nothing more than an excuse to kill whales for

Japan’s domestic meat market.

 

Japan is responsible for the killing of more than 700 whales each year,

including endangered humpback and sei whales. The IWC has made moves in recent

years to address other conservation threats to the world’s whales. But Japan

has announced publicly that if it obtains the simple majority, it will

immediately move for the removal of all conservation issues from the IWC’s

agenda.

 

WWF has been focusing on the conservation of cetaceans and other marine mammals

for over 40 years and has worked for many years to build the conservation agenda

of the IWC and its Scientific Committee, recognizing the serious threat of

issues beyond whaling and direct take of whales and dolphins. This includes the

catching and drowning each year of thousands of whales and dolphins in fishing

gear (bycatch), climate change and ship strikes. Bycatch, a top priority of our

work around the world, causes the deaths of at least 300,000 whales, dolphins

and porpoises every year — nearly 1,000 each day.

 

With a pro-whaling majority, WWF is concerned that these threats, all of which

have a devastating impact on whale populations, will be dropped from the IWC’s

programme of work. A majority pro-whaling bloc could also bring in secret

ballots to the IWC for the first time — Japan has asked for this for six years

in a row and has been defeated each time. Currently, all votes are open and on

public record, something that WWF and conservation-friendly countries in the IWC

support in order to ensure transparency and full accountability.

 

Although the IWC moratorium on commercial whaling is expected to stay in place

for now — as it requires a three-quarter majority to be overturned — some

predict that if Japan gets a simple majority this year, it will be a just a

matter of time before they get the votes to resume full-scale commercial

whaling.

 

In response to a likely shift to the pro-whaling lobby, WWF has been using its

global influence to encourage more conservation-minded countries to join the

IWC, despite the prohibitively high dues for developing countries to join.

 

We have also been lobbying developing countries that have voted with Japan in

the past to commit to the responsible use of global marine resources and

consider the benefits of whales within marine ecosystems, and the economic

benefits of whales to coastal communities from activities such as

whale-watching. Millions of tourists go whale-watching each year, contributing

to tourism revenue that exceeds over US$1 billion.

 

This will be a decisive meeting of the IWC, one that could decide the fate of

the future of whale populations around the world for years to come. If Japan

wins the simple majority, perhaps the world will finally wake up. For those

countries that have been too apathetic or disinterested in joining the debate,

the shock to their citizens may be a decisive factor in bringing them on board.

For those countries who are members, the time will soon arrive for their

citizens to insist on strong conservation action, not rhetoric.

 

* Dr Susan Lieberman is Director of WWF’s Global Species Programme.