Nations Take Sides: Whale Sanctuary vs Whaling

SHIMONOSEKI, Japan, May 20, 2002 (ENS) - The opening shots of a fierce battle over the resumption of commercial whaling were fired today in the small whaling village of Shimonoseki at the annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission. Delegates from 46 countries will decide the future of the world's great whales that Japan sees as a resource and the anti-whaling nations view as threatened marine treasures.

Minke whale (Photo courtesy Sea Watch Foundation)

Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Island nations, the United States and most European countries will try to maintain the ban. The struggle is unlikely to result in a major breakthrough since any binding decision requires a three-quarters majority at the IWC.

Arriving delegates were greeted by Greenpeace activists dressed up as Japan's senior Fisheries Agency official, Masayuki Komatsu, surrounded by piles of fake gold with which to tempt developing nations in exchange for their votes in favor of whaling.

Delegate passes Greenpeace demonstrators in Shimonoseki (Photo courtesy Greenpeace)

Niue and Papua New Guinea have just declared their waters as whale sanctuaries and French Polynesia is following suit. The sanctuary in French Polynesia would establish the largest whale sanctuary in the Pacific Ocean, representing an area spanning over four million square kilometres, an area greater than the size of Europe.

The Niuean Cabinet passed the Niuean Whale Sanctuary Regulations on May 15 which declares all Niuean waters as a whale sanctuary and prohibits the killing or taking of whales and porpoises in waters under its jurisdiction.

"I would particularly like to acknowledge France in its role in the establishment of this important sanctuary," Dr. Kemp said.

Niue, PNG and French Polynesia join a growing number of South Pacific Island governments, including the Cook Islands and Tonga, which have either declared their waters as whale sanctuaries or announced their intention to do so.

Pacific Ocean off the coast of Niue (Photo courtesy Pacific Navigator)

The United States is maintaining its policy of opposition to commercial whaling. At the same time, the United States has been participating in an IWC group to negotiate rules that would govern the management of whale stocks, should commercial whaling ever resume. This proposed management plan, with the inclusion of a system for observing the hunt and monitoring the distribution of whale products, is known as the revised management scheme or RMS.

Whaling nation Iceland left the IWC in 1992, angry at the long delay on a new resource management scheme. Iceland tried to return last year and was allowed observer status due to its reservations against the moratorium on commercial whaling.

Japan, in a bid to win more support, is placing emphasis on such procedural matters, such as reviving Iceland's IWC membership, reviewing the IWC's financial contribution system to alleviate burdens on small countries, and introducing secret balloting.

Tokyo will also "carefully examine" the possibility of proposing a resolution calling on IWC members to complete the Revised Management Scheme to pave the way for the resumption of commercial whaling, Japanese officials told the Kyodo News Service.

The annual gathering began April 25 with closed-door sessions of the IWC Science Committee and working groups on the revised management scheme, aboriginal subsistence whaling, and whale killing methods.