Greenpeace Ship Denied Entry to St. Kitts Ahead of Whale Meeting

FRIGATE BAY, St. Kitts, June 14, 2006 (ENS) - The Greenpeace ship the MY Arctic Sunrise has been refused entry to St. Kitts, where the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting opens on Friday.

A notice refusing entry was sent to the ship's agent on June 9 from the Saint Christopher and Nevis Ministry of National Security, Justice, Immigration and Labour.

No official reason for the notice has been given to the environmental organization, despite repeated requests from Greenpeace.

"We are shocked that St. Kitts has banned the Arctic Sunrise and can only assume that the government of Japan has convinced the St. Kitts authorities to prevent us from entering in the hope that our criticism of whaling will be silenced," said John Bowler of Greenpeace International.

Greenpeace had intended to use the Arctic Sunrise in its lobbying activities at the IWC meeting, which could see the pro-whaling countries take control of the 70 member commission.

Two minke whales flee in front of a Japanese whaler in the Southern Ocean, January 12, 2006. (Photo by Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert courtesy Greenpeace)

Bowler says, "The St Kitts meeting of the IWC could see the reversal of many years of whale protection and conservation, with strong indications that the Japanese government will have bought out enough votes to take control of the Commission."

"In that event," he says, "it is anticipated that Greenpeace will be ejected from the meeting, after having had its observer status revoked, secret ballots will be introduced and the Japanese scientific whaling program will be endorsed by the commission."

When the meeting opens, commissioners will consider the revised management scheme, a regime that would set the terms for a return to commercial whaling and a reversal of the moratorium that has been in effect since 1986. Despite the ban, the IWC allows limited hunts for research purposes.

Conservation groups around the world condemn Japan’s whaling operations in the waters of Antarctica and the northwestern Pacific Ocean, saying that Japan's research hunts are commercial whaling veiled in a thin disguise.

St. Kitts has a long history of voting with Japan at the IWC. Since 1992, when St. Kitts and Nevis joined the commission, St. Kitts has never cast a vote against Japan.

“The future of the whales hangs in the balance and this is yet another ominous sign that whales are for sale in St. Kitts and criticism is to be silenced,” said Bowler.

Since May 30, nearly 200 whale and marine scientists from around the world have been in St. Kitts for scientific meetings that preceded each annual IWC meeting.

IWC Scientific Committee Chairman Arne Bjorge says this year the scientists focused on population dynamics of whales, ecological issues, and the effects of seismic activity on whales as well as the revised management scheme.

Japanese whaler hauls a minke whale aboard. Southern Ocean, January 7, 2006. (Photo courtesy Greenpeace)

The whale carcasses are studied and then their meat is sold in restaurants and markets to fund the whaling program.

The Japanese government holds that whaling is a national tradition and an important part of its culinary culture. It says whales have recovered enough since 1986 to allow hunting again.

Japan's Institute for Cetacean Research, the agency in charge of whaling, supports the revised management scheme, which it says does not permit whaling for any species or stocks considered to be threatened or endangered.

The Australian Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Senator Ian Campbell, leader of the pro-conservation Australian IWC delegation, said the outcome of the meeting will hang on just one or two votes.

“The meeting will be tough – I don't deny that. The balance of votes between the pro-conservation and pro-whaling blocs is knife-edged," he said.

Australian waters are inhabited by 45 species of whales and dolphins, and the Australian government has made whale and dolphin conservation a priority.

“Pro-whaling nations will be seeking to gain a simple majority at the meeting and using that majority to legitimize so-called 'scientific' whaling and mount a gradual return to commercial whaling,” Campbell said.

If pro-whaling nations prevail, Campbell said, they will also seek to shut nongovernmental organizations out of the IWC meetings, where they now participate as observers.

St. Kitt's denial of entry to the Greenpeace vessel Arctic Sunrise could be the thin edge of that wedge.