Fury as whaling talks block out media

THE International Whaling Commission withdrew yesterday behind closed doors within minutes of kicking off a tense meeting that could end a global ban on commercial whaling.

Accredited green groups were fuming at what they called the unprecedented lockdown.

“The decision to exclude the civil society and media is a scandal,” said Wendy Elliott of WWF International.

The 88-nation body is debating a proposal, put forward by the IWC’s chairmen, that seeks to break a 24-year deadlock and reduce the number of animals killed.

Japan, Norway and Iceland have flouted the 1986 moratorium, harvesting more than 1,500 of the marine mammals in the 2008-2009 season alone.

Tokyo has said it is keen to find a middle ground, but drew a line.

“In these negotiations, it is impossible for Japan to accept zero catches as the final outcome,” Japan’s deputy agriculture minister Yasue Funayama told journalists.

The draft deal tables reduced annual catch numbers through 2020 for four species of whales as a baseline for negotiations, in the hope of coaxing the renegades back into the IWC fold.

Under the scheme, total allowable kills in each of the first five years would be just over 90% of the 2008-2009 figure, dropping further from 2015 to 2020.

Led by Germany and Britain, European countries have welcomed Japan’s apparent willingness to trim its kill quotas, but said that is not enough.

“Japan has signalled that they are ready to reduce their catch by about 50% over 10 years,” said Gert Lindermanm, leader of the German delegation.

“But the numbers should lay out the path so that step by step commercial whaling should be finished.”

The proposed deal would require the gradual reduction of kill quotas over a 10-year period.

It also would allow hunting in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary, which many EU states, and Australia, have suggested is a deal breaker.

The IWC’s own scientific committee said in a report yesterday that most of the catch quotas in the proposal are not sustainable.