Whalers poised to seize control of the International Whaling Commission
International Whaling Commission 58th meeting
St. Kitts & Nevis, June 16th-20th 2006
Whale lovers around the world are holding their breath as the 58th meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) prepares to get underway on the Caribbean island of St Kitts this Friday. There's a good chance that the IWC, charged by the United Nations with protecting whales, is about to be taken over by the world's most consistently and aggressively pro-whaling government - Japan.
A moratorium on commercial whaling was introduced in 1986 when research showed thatmany species were being decimated, Japan, Norway and Iceland have exploited loopholes in the legislation to allow 'scientific' whaling. Between them they kill around 2,000 whales a year in the name of spurious science - although the meat from these kills is sold commercially.
Ever since its introduction Japan has been fighting to get the moratorium overturned. Since thankfully there are so few genuine whaling nations left in the world the Japanese have adopted a different approach: giving foreign aid to any countries who will apply for membership of IWC and the support them on the issue. While the Japanese government categorically denies any suggestions that they might be buying votes, the number of countries who have signed up to support them at the IWC after receiving Japanese aid tells a different story. Most of their new found supporters are poor nations with no whaling history but an urgent need for foreign investment - some, like Mali in West Africa, don't even have any coastline.
Japan came very close last year to gaining a simple majority among the Commission's members. If they succeed this year, they will not be able to overturn the moratorium (a 75% majority is needed for that), but they are likely to hurl a large spanner into the IWC's planned conservation works, removing measures to protect whales, forcing resolutions to endorse their 'scientific' whaling programme and calling on CITES (the convention for the Trade in Endangered Species) to lift its ban onhunting minke whales.
Between them Japan, Iceland and Norway are killing around 2,000 whales a year - in the name of spurious science
If Japan wins this Friday's vote, the consequences for the world's remaining whale populations will be devastating. This is a wake up call for the world's anti-whaling governments for failing to effectively oppose Japan's hostile take-over of the IWC - we now need high-level political action from anti-whaling countries to defend the interests of whales.
Some of the governments that helped enact the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary (1994) and moratorium on commercial whaling (1986) have, in fact, spoken out against Japan. This past year 17 nations (including Brazil, Australia and the UK) issued a strongly worded diplomatic demarche pointing out:
"Japan is now killing more whales in the Antarctic every year than it killed for scientific research in the 31 years prior to the introduction of the moratorium on commercial whaling."
The governments further expressed "grave concerns" that the ongoing hunt, "will undermine the long-term viability," of both fin and humpback whales.
But it looks like this strong diplomatic action, and ministerial level visits to some new IWC members, will not be enough to prevent Japan taking over. The reality is that the Japanese government has chosen to spend more money and political capital on whaling than the governments who favour protecting whales. There is on some levels probably a disbelief that the whalers can win back control of the IWC - intuitively it just doesn't make sense considering the mess they made of it before sanity prevailed in the early eighties. But for years now the warning signs have been clear. No matter what happens at this year's meeting, it should be a wake up call for the conservation minded governments of the world.
