Whaling panel meeting underway

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Link: http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070013675

 

Whaling panel meeting underway

 

Associated Press

Tuesday, May 29, 2007 (Anchorage)

A meeting of the International Whaling Commission in Anchorage, Alaska

has brought out renewed calls for more protection for the marine mammals.

 

The meeting convened amid heightened security for the first annual

gathering held in the United States in almost two decades.

 

Scores of anti-whaling activists were in Anchorage to monitor the

four-day proceedings and lobby for increased protection for the marine

mammals.

 

They are keeping a close watch of important issues to be addressed,

including the proposed renewal of bowhead whale quota for indigenous

hunters, such as Alaska natives in 10 coastal villages.

 

The meeting is expected to end with a 21-year moratorium on commercial

whaling formally still in place despite a symbolic resolution to

overturn the ban that was passed at last year's meeting.

 

A 75 per cent majority would be necessary to end the moratorium, but

the vote fell short of that mark.

 

Several anti-whaling members have since been added to the commission.

The moratorium was enacted in 1986 to protect several vulnerable species.

 

Japan slammed

 

Pro-whaling nations, including Japan, Norway and Iceland, argue that

it is no longer needed because whale populations have rebounded.

 

Norway and Iceland do not recognise the ban and conduct commercial

whaling, and Japan hunts whales under a research provision allowed by

the IWC.

 

Activists oppose a program in which Japan kills about 1,000 whales

each year for scientific research and then sells the meat.

 

Critics say the program is nothing but a loophole that defies the

moratorium and should be better scrutinised by whale-friendly nations.

 

Japan also plans to seek ''community whaling'' status, which would

give it quotas under provisions similar to those that allow Alaska

natives and other indigenous groups to hunt the mammals.

 

Japan has tried and failed to get quotas for more than two decades,

according to Joji Morishita, the alternate IWC commissioner for Japan.

 

Japan contends that commercial whaling can coincide with environmental

interests if done properly.

 

The IWC needs to focus on managing the hunting of plentiful species

rather than squelching a practice that has existed for thousands of

years, said Morishita.

 

Morishita has said his country would be willing to give up some of its

research kills in exchange for approval of quotas for several of its

coastal communities.

 

Japan has sparked widespread outrage by its intention to kill 50

humpback whales, an endangered species.

 

Delegates of New Zealand, Australia and other whale-conservation

nations urged Japan to respect the intensity of public feeling about

the issue.

 

''Well I'm saying to Japan on behalf of the people of New Zealand:

Give up the proposal to kill 50 humpbacks. If you do that, we will

regard that as a gesture of good will,'' said New Zealand delegate

Chris Carter, that nation's conservation minister.

 

The meeting will continue through Thursday.