Whale Hunters, Conservationists Take Annual Battle Stations

SORRENTO, Italy, July 19, 2004 (ENS) - The 57 member nations of the International Whaling Commission opened their annual meeting in Sorrento today amidst accusations that Japan is buying the votes of developing nations to sway the organization to lift its 18 year moratorium on commercial whaling. Each year the IWC meeting is the arena where the pro-whaling and anti-whaling nations battle for control of the whales - great and small.

"Some of the poorest developing countries in the world are being used to vote in favor of whaling," said campaigner John Frizell, of Greenpeace International. "This is a clear case of "money talks" and it's happening right in front of us. It is time we put a stop to this ongoing vote buying, before it is too late."

Cote d'Ivoire, Mauritania, Surinam and Tuvalu joined the International Whaling Commission (IWC) this year and Greenpeace expects them all to vote for a resumption of whaling.

Minke whales are the target of most whalers today. (Photo by Amy Van Atten courtesy NMFS)

But the Tuvalu government representative to the IWC is denying the Pacific island nation has been encouraged by Japan to join the commission, and still has not decided how to vote. Tuvalu’s Nelesone Panapasi told Radio New Zealand, "Well we’ll listen to the scientific evidence that people have during the meeting, because we are yet to really know what information they have."

But Panapasi said Tuvalu believes in the sustainable use of marine resources and that the Japanese have made their case for whaling to the government of Tuvalu.

"The balance at the IWC is so close now that issues may turn on a single vote," said Frizell. "It is appalling that a conservation measure supported by hundreds of millions of people around the world could be swept away by a well financed campaign of vote buying by a government representing the interests of an outdated industry."

On the side of commercial whaling are Japan, Norway, Iceland and many of the smaller IWC member nations.

Ranged against whaling are the United States, Australia and New Zealand, the European Union countries, and the South American IWC members. To date, this sector has succeeded in keeping the moratorium in place.

Australia and New Zealand will once again propose a South Pacific whale sanctuary, and Brazil and Argentina again will propose a South Atlantic sanctuary, but since a 75 percent vote of the IWC members is required to adopt a sanctuary resolution, these proposals are unlikely to pass.

One of the justifications used by the pro-whaling nations is that whales are eating too many fish, leaving too few to support human needs.

Whale carcasses are cut up on the deck of a whaling ship. (Photo courtesy New Zealand Department of Conservation)

The report, entitled "Competition between Marine Mammals and Fisheries: Food for Thought," was produced by Ph.D. candidate Kristin Kaschner and her advisor Dr. Daniel Pauly, professor and director of the Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia (UBC), in Vancouver.

Dr. Pauly is the principal investigator of the Sea Around Us Project, based at the Fisheries Centre, UBC, which is funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, and is devoted to studying the impact of fisheries on the world’s marine ecosystems.

Most food consumed by marine mammals consists of prey types that fisheries do not target, according to the studies cited in the report. Whales consume most of their food in areas where commercial vessels do not fish.

"What whales consume is largely stuff that we do not catch in areas where we do not fish," Dr. Pauly said.

Japan, Norway, and Iceland have been saying that whales must be culled to prevent the continued decline of global fish populations in order to justify their call to increase the present slaughter of hundreds of whales each year to thousands.

Japan takes some 800 minke whales each year and a smaller number of sei, sperm and fin whales under the scientific research provisions of the IWC treaty. Operating under the same provisions, Iceland intends to take 25 minke whales this year.

Norway adopted a reservation to the moratorium and simply conducts commercial whaling operations as it wishes.

Based in the Lofoten Islands, Norway, the High North Alliance represents pro-whaling organizations in Norway, Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands. This group is of the opinion that the moratorium "should be considered null, void, outdated and illegal."

"The moratorium was adopted without any scientific justification, and thus against the letter and spirit of the Convention," the alliance says, and it was supposed to be a temporary measure only, which is also reflected in the actual wording."

Greenpeace protesters confront a Norwegian whaling crew in 1999. (Photo courtesy Greenpeace)

Whale conservationists argue that whale watching is more lucrative than whale hunting, but a new report from an Icelandic whaling company shows that for Iceland, that is not true.

"Whale watching companies are running with economic losses, increased liabilities, and only new capital ensures a positive equity," concludes a detailed review of the annual accounts of the leading Icelandic whale watching companies.

In the period 1999-2002, these companies lost money every year, with a total accumulated loss of more than US$1.087 million said Kristjan Loftsson, head of an Icelandic whaling company.

Loftsson is of the view that whale watching and whaling can co-exist. "I welcome whale watching as an economic activity," he said, "but that is no reason to give up sustainable whaling."

But whale conservationists are not persuaded by this position. The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) points out that more than 15,000 whales have been killed by Japan, Norway and Iceland since the IWC adopted the commercial whaling moratorium in 1986.

IFAW cites another new study just released by University of Auckland researcher Dr. C. Scott Baker and a team of scientists, based on DNA analysis of product samples, which indicates that meat from protected sei whales was sold in Japanese markets between 1998 and 2003, despite assurances to the contrary from the government of Japan.

"It appears we have found the smoking harpoon," said Naoko Funahashi, IFAW’s Japan representative and member of the research team. "The most likely source of this whale meat is illegal hunting."

IFAW is worried that Japan's global "vote consolidation" program might be successful in overturning the commercial whaling moratorium.

"Japan may actually buy its way to a majority," said Bettina Bugeda, director of IFAW Latin America. "This would be a disaster for the whales, for this forum and for other international institutions. Japan is killing protected whales, selling illegal whale meat and buying votes. They must be stopped."