U.S. backs deal to let Japan legally kill whales in the Southern Oceans

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2010:

 

 

U.S. backs deal to let Japan legally kill whales in the Southern Oceans

 

WASHINGTON D.C.--Japan is likely to be authorized to engage

in commercial whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary and

coastal waters, and Norway and Iceland are likely to be allowed to

continue commercial whaling, now with International Whaling

Commission approval, at the 2010 IWC meeting in Agadir, Morocco,

to be held June 21-25.

Japan has engaged in " research " whaling at commercial levels

throughout the global whaling moratorium declared by the IWC in 1982,

and has killed whales within the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary ever

since the sanctuary was designated in 1994. The IWC has not

previously addressed Japanese coastal whaling, which mostly kills

species smaller than those regulated by the IWC. Norway has killed

minke whales in coastal waters since 1993. Iceland has wobbled

between authorizing and prohibiting whaling.

The 88-nation IWC is expected to condone Japanese,

Norwegian, and Icelandic whaling as part of a " compromise " that

would attempt to lower their whaling quotas, place observers on

whaling vessels, and keep other nations from resuming whaling.

A published draft proposal from the IWC Small Working Group

is due to be formalized on April 22.

The draft proposal mostly follows the recommendations of a

" Whale Sympos-ium " held by the Pew Charitable Trusts in February

2008. The symposium concluded that " the most promising compromise "

to end conflict with Japan over the 24-year-old IWC moratorium on

commercial whaling " would recognize potentially legitimate claims by

coastal whaling communities; suspend scientific whaling in its

current form and respect sanctuaries, " omitted from the Small

Working Group draft proposal; and " define a finite number of whales

that can be taken by all of the world's nations. " The Pew

recommendations were pushed by former U.S. IWC commissioner William

Hogarth, who retired after chairing the 2009 IWC meeting.

" Allowing Japan to continue commercial whaling is

unacceptable, " declared U.S. President Barack Obama in March 2009,

but in March 2010 Obama appointed former Pew Institute director of

whale conservation Monica Medine to succeed Hogarth.

Explained Michael McCarthy, environment editor for The

Independent, " U.S. officials have been strongly backing the

proposal. This is thought to be in part because of a specific

problem--the subsistence whaling quotas for indigenous Inuit peoples

in Alaska, which the U.S. is obliged to seek from the IWC every few

years. In 2002, in return for American hostility to its

'scientific' whaling, Japan blocked the quota, causing the U.S.

considerable embarrassment before the Japanese backed down. The next

quota request is due in 2012. Some observers think the U.S. wants to

make sure it is on terms with Japan so the quota will not be blocked

again. Another surprise supporter of the proposal is New Zealand, "

McCarthy said, " although Australia is strongly opposed to the plan. "

Wrote Christian Dippel in the March 4, 2010 edition of

Foreign Policy, " If the IWC follows the Small Working Group

recommendation, it would be a major victory for the whaling

nations--thanks in no small part to the work Japan has put into

cultivating allies in the commission. Countries that have joined the

IWC recently and voted with Japan have been more likely to see

increases in Japanese bilateral aid receipts, " Dippel noted. " For

instance, Antigua & Barbuda and St. Kitts & Nevis, both of which

were in the Small Working Group, have received around $40 more in per

capita aid from Japan since joining the IWC. " Dippel found that " IWC

membership is an even more powerful predictor of decreases in British

aid receipts and combined aid receipts from France, Germany, and

the U.S., " but observed that " Foreign aid can be divided into loans

that need to be paid back and grants that do not. Japanese foreign

aid increases are almost entirely in grant form, which developing

countries prefer. "

The IWC Small Working Group proposal was denounced by

BlueVoice, Green-peace, the International Fund for Animal Welfare,

and the Whale & Dolphin Conservation Society, among other longtime

opponents of whaling.

 

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephones: 360-579-2505, 360-678-1057

Cell: 360-969-0450

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

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