Pro-whaling nations try to rebound after early defeats

Japan and other pro-whaling nations will today try to rebound from two early defeats to win a majority at the International Whaling Commission’s annual meeting and pave the way for commercial whale hunting, which was banned 20 years ago.

Joji Morishita, Japan’s chief delegate to the IWC conference in St. Kitts, said the organisation was not meeting its mandate to regulate the sustainable hunting of whales and needs to be “normalised”.

“The IWC has become so polarised that there is no room for negotiation. Some countries won’t even accept the taking of one whale from the sea,” Morishita said.

Japan plans to continue its push to ease restrictions on commercial whaling today despite losing two early votes at the meeting yesterday.

The commission voted 33-30 against a proposal by Japan for secret ballots so that nations could back its pro-whaling stance without fear of retribution. It also voted 32-30 against a proposal to remove the issue of hunting dolphins and porpoises from the 70-member IWC’s agenda.

The defeats came after the Solomon Islands, a nation that usually sides with Japan, abstained on one vote and Belize unexpectedly voted against both initiatives.

Both Japan and Iceland kill whales for scientific research – which critics call a sham – and sell the carcasses. Norway is the only country that ignores the moratorium and openly conducts commercial whaling. Tribal groups conduct whaling under commission rules that allow them to hunt the mammals for subsistence.

Australia’s delegation leader, Environment Minister Ian Campbell, said he was hopeful member countries opposed to the resumption of commercial hunting could stop Japan and the pro-whaling lobby from seizing control of the world body at the meeting.

“Japan wants to turn the IWC back into a whalers club,” Campbell said.

But Andrew Magliore, a spokesman for the Caribbean island of Dominica, said Japan’s proposal to reform the commission was needed. “There isn’t just one way to manage a resource. We need to get out of this rut and make some compromise,” Magliore said.

Dominica is one of several developing countries that environmentalists accuse of siding with Japan on whale hunting in exchange for economic aid – a charge that Japan and those countries have repeatedly denied. Japan has given six Caribbean nations – Dominica, St Lucia, St Vincent, Antigua, Grenada and St Kitts – nearly £60m (€87.8m) in fishing aid since 1998 and most of the small islands have consistently backed Japan on whaling.

The head of Brazil’s delegation to the conference said developing nations which support Japan’s whale hunting proposals were making a mistake.

“We need to push for a non-lethal enjoyment of whales. Whale watching and tourism offers developing nations much needed jobs,” Maria Pessoa said.

Japan plans to introduce a proposal to hunt 150 Brydes whales annually until 2010 as a form of traditional whaling. This would require a 75% majority to be passed, and was considered unlikely.

Patrick Ramage, spokesman for the conservation group International Fund for Animal Welfare, said, “Japan is trying to invent a new form of whaling and call it cultural.”

The five-day meeting of the International Whaling Commission continues on St Kitts until June 20.