Whale Survival at Stake in War Over Commercial Whaling

FRIGATE BAY, St. Kitts, June 12, 2006 (ENS) - The battle over a resumption of commercial whaling is reaching a crisis point at this year's meeting of an expanded International Whaling Commission (IWC) opening here Friday.

Attempts to revive commercial whaling by Japan, Norway and Iceland were narrowly defeated at the 2005 annual meeting in Korea, and since then both sides have engaged in intense lobbying to build support.

Pro-whaling Japan has been wooing small, impoverished nations with foreign aid to persuade them to help overturn the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling. The moratorium took effect after centuries of whaling drove several whale species to the brink of extinction.

A fin whale, a primary target for modern whaling. The IWC says this species is "heavily reduced," particularly in the North Pacific and Southern Hemisphere. There is evidence of recovery in the North Atlantic and parts of the Southern Hemisphere. (Photo courtesy IWC)

The accession in the last 12 months of Cameroon, the Gambia, Nauru and Togo, and in the last few days Cambodia, Guatemala, the Marshall Islands and Israel, indicates that the pro-whaling nations may have secured the majority of votes after losing votes for years to the conservation bloc.

Japan now counts 36 supporters among the 70 member nations of the commission.

But the pro-whaling majority is not assured. Japan is the third largest donor to the Marshall Islands and has lobbied hard to bring the small country to its side, but director of the Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority, Glen Joseph says the Marshalls will make its own decision in St. Kitts.

"We are going to make the decision on our own grounds and our own judgement of how the issues are presented at the commission," he told Radio New Zealand last week.

Conservation advocates are hoping that the smaller countries will not be swayed by cash diplomacy.

Israel bolstered the ranks of the pro-conservation nations by joining the commission just days ago. Israel has no whaling industry and the new government has yet to formulate an official policy on the issue, but Israel joined in response to a direct plea from the United States to help defend the moratorium on commercial whaling.

Stewart Tuttle, the U.S. Embassy spokesman in Tel Aviv, said the U.S. ambassador made a personal appeal to Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. A formal request also came from the U.S. representative to the whaling commission to the Israeli environment minister, he said.

"The U.S. believes that countries such as Israel can help make a difference in ensuring the long-term conservation of whale species and opposing attempts to weaken or minimize regulations for future whaling operations," Tuttle said.

The Solomon Islands government has decided to abstain on the resolution on the moratorium on commercial and scientific whaling. Instead, Fisheries Minister Nollen Leni said his government would call on the IWC to make an urgent commitment to complete the Revised Management Scheme which enables the commission to inspect, monitor and control the harvesting of whales.

Leni said, "The government is concerned that the issues of commercial and scientific whaling have been allowed to continue without any positive signs of these issues being resolved by International Whaling Commission."

He said there has been "too much political wrangling between anti-whaling and pro-whaling nations."

Even if a pro-whaling majority is established, a simple majority would be not be sufficient to lift the 1986 moratorium on whaling, which requires approval by three-quarters of the member states. But a majority could allow whaling countries to take control of the IWC meetings by setting the agenda and passing non-binding resolutions.

Japan has indicated its priorities for this year's meeting, first a vote to eliminate the IWC's Conservation Committee, set up in 2003 to study measures to preserve whales.

Japan will attempt to block discussion of all issues relating to dolphins, porpoises and small whales as Japanese coastal fishermen hunt them each year in defiance of conservationist outrage.

Japan also will propose a vote on a resolution supporting its research whaling in the Antarctic Ocean and the North Pacific.

This year, the conservationist nations have a legal opinion to back their position. An international panel of independent legal experts convened in Paris released a report June 1 finding that Japanese scientific whaling is "unlawful" under international law, and contravenes key international conventions.

The finding undermines Japan’s stance that it has the legal right to commercially hunt whales in the name of scientific research.

A rare Bryde's whale is examined on the deck of a Japanese whaling vessel. (Photo courtesy ICR)

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), which commissioned the independent panel’s review, says the report solidifies the case against Japan’s whaling program.

"The findings of these independent legal experts are clear – Japan’s so-called ‘scientific’ whaling is unlawful," said Dr. Joth Singh, IFAW director of wildlife and habitat protection. "The global community needs to hold Japan accountable for its disregard of international law, and IWC member nations may want to carefully consider their reputations before voting with Japan – as a vote for ‘scientific’ whaling is a vote for an unlawful activity."

Members of the International Panel of Independent Legal Experts are:

• Professor Laurence Boisson de Chazournes, head of the Department of Public International Law and International Organisations at the Faculty of Law, University of Geneva

• Professor Pierre-Marie Dupuy with the University of Paris II and the European University Institute, Florence.

• Professor Phillipe Sands QC, director of the Centre of International Courts and Tribunals at University College London and practicing public international law barrister at Matrix Chambers.

• Professor Alberto Szekely, ad hoc judge, International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea, member of the Permanent Court of International Arbitration at the Hague.

• William H. Taft IV, counsel Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver and Jacobson, formerly legal adviser for U.S. Department of State and U.S. Ambassador to NATO.

• Kate Cook, barrister Matrix Chambers, specializing in environmental law and the law relating to development, formerly legal adviser to the UK Department of the Environment.