Second defeat for pro-whaling nations

A coalition of conservation-minded nations have managed to thwart Japan’s attempt to form a pro-whaling majority on the International Whaling Commission and reverse the moratorium on commercial hunting that went into effect two decades ago.

Japan and other pro-whaling countries lost their third vote in a row last night at the 70-member commission’s annual meeting on St Kitts, preventing their predicted takeover of the organisation that manages whaling.

A proposal to allow fishermen in Taiji, a coastal community in south east Japan, to hunt minke whales was defeated 31-30. It would have needed a 75% majority to be passed, but the failure to win even a simple majority was a stinging defeat for Tokyo.

Four countries that were expected to side with Japan – China, South Korea, the Solomon Islands, and Kiribati – unexpectedly abstained.

Joji Morishita, the Japanese delegation’s spokesman, said shortly before that: “We are glad this is not a secret vote. Japan will remember which countries supported this proposal and which countries said no.”

Japan had proposed the introduction of secret ballots, but that vote, which needed just a simple majority, failed 33-30 on Friday.

After losing the vote on last night, Japan withdrew another proposal from the floor that would have allowed the hunting of 10 Bryde’s whales off its coast each year until 2010 as a form of traditional whaling – which critics said was a guise to kill whales solely for commercial purposes.

Tokyo believes whale stocks have sufficiently rebounded to allow regulated hunts of certain species, and Japan plans to lead a meeting tomorrow on its plan to “normalise” the 60-year-old commission and push it back toward its roots as a whaling management group.

“I can’t understand it,” said Ben Bradshaw, Britain’s Minister for Fisheries and Nature Conservation.

”We are a great friend and ally of Japan in almost every other field. And it is completely inexplicable to me that Japan, Norway and Iceland continue to push for a resumption of commercial whaling.

“That hugely damages their international reputations,” Mr Bradshaw added. “The whale meat is stacking up in huge freezers in these countries because they can’t sell it.

“I can only think that it is about a kind of culturally nationalistic obstinacy that makes them pursue this course.”

Conservationists expressed relief at the failure of Japan and other pro-whaling nations to achieve a majority, but noted that the votes were becoming closer.

“Japan is now down three votes for three. But the margin was again too close for comfort. Extra countries have turned up since the first day and are voting with Japan,” said Greenpeace International’s John Frizell.

Togo, which usually sides with Japan, paid some £8,200 in back dues late on Friday, making it eligible to cast ballots.

New Zealand Conservation Minister Chris Carter was more optimistic: “We came anticipating the worse and that hasn’t happened. If we hold the line, ultimately public opinion in the whaling countries will turn against whalers.”

A representative of a Norwegian whaling advocacy group said anti-whaling nations must compromise if the commission is to have any future. “The majority believes if you say no to whaling it will stop, but it won’t,” said Rune Frovik, secretary of the High North Alliance.

Norway is the only country that ignores the 20-year-old moratorium and openly conducts commercial whaling. Both Japan and Iceland kill whales for scientific research – which critics call a sham – and sell the carcasses. Tribal groups conduct whaling under commission rules that allow them to hunt the mammals for subsistence.

Tokyo has threatened to abandon the commission if the group does not ease restrictions to allow regulated commercial hunting.

But delegates from Australia, New Zealand and the United States, all opposed to commercial hunting, said Japan’s withdrawal was unlikely.

“That wouldn’t happen. They wouldn’t be taken seriously at international groups like the UN,” said the head of Australia’s delegation, Environment Minister Ian Campbell.

The five-day meeting of the International Whaling Commission continues until Tuesday in the Caribbean island of St Kitts.