Whaling Opponents Converge on Japan

TOKYO, Japan, May 16, 2002 (ENS) - The International Fund for Animal Welfare brought its objections to continued Japanese whaling into the center of Tokyo today in advance of the annual International Whaling Commission meeting next week in the whaling town of Shimonoseki, Japan.

In a packed press conference at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan representatives of the anti-whaling group briefed dozens of key international and Japanese media on the controversial issues to be debated at next week's IWC meeting in Shimonoseki, Japan.

Japanese whalers take a minke whale in the Southern Ocean, 2001. (Photo courtesy Greenpeace)

"The IWC suspended all commercial whaling in 1986, but Japan has been killing whales ever since," Dr. Chris Tuite, IFAW Director of Wildlife and Habitat, said at the press briefing. "Recent moves by the Japanese Fisheries Agency threaten to destroy three decades of hard-won protections for whales. These fisheries bureaucrats will stop at nothing. Their irresponsible statements and actions now also threaten Japan's reputation and credibility in the international community."

IFAW representatives also criticized Japan's so-called "scientific whaling" program and rejected claims by Japan and a handful of other pro-whaling countries that whales should be killed because they eat too many fish.

Japan is facing stiff opposition to its bid to resume legal commercial whaling from about half the member countries of the International Whaling Commission. On May 7, the ambassadors from 18 countries delivered a letter to Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister Shigeo Uetake calling on Japan to immediately abandon its "scientific whaling" program, which the statement noted does not have the support of the IWC or its Scientific Committee.

"As member states of the IWC, our governments consider Japan's actions as undermining the authority of the IWC, and as designed to undo the decades of progress that have achieved the substantial level of protection that whales enjoy today," they said in a statement released by the U.S. Embassy.

"Our governments reaffirm their strong commitment to the conservation of whales, while at the same time rejecting commercial whaling," the member countries said.

Bryde's whale (Photo courtesy IFAW CT)

"The programme represents a major expansion of Japan's whaling operations," said the statement from the 18 IWC members, including Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Britain and the United States.

The United States delegation to the 54th annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) headed by Commissioner Rolland Schmitten of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, intends to maintain a strong case against the resumption of commercial whaling.

In a statement issued today, the U.S. expressed strong opposition to the killing of a new and protected species - the sei whale.

"The United States particularly objects to the proposed expansion to take a new species of whale in 2002, and, along with 17 other IWC members, has formally called upon Japan to withdraw its proposal to expand the program," the statement said.

Japan's research program now results in the killing of up to 600 whales - 540 minke whales, 50 Bryde's whales, and 10 sperm whales per year. More than 6,200 whales have been killed since Japan began research whaling in 1988.

The United States plans to oppose commercial whaling, an expansion of scientific whaling and trade in whale products.

In the U.S. Senate, Senator John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, submitted a resolution May 14 urging the United States to remain "firmly opposed" to commercial whaling and to support the establishment of whale sanctuaries.

With bipartisan support, the proposed resolution was referred the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.