US commission upholds whaling ban

A 21-year moratorium on commercial whaling has been upheld by the International Whaling Commission meeting in the US.

Also, Japan failed in its bid to gain “community whaling” status that would allow limited minke whale hunts by coastal communities with whaling histories.

The vote on the last day of the meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, that upheld the commercial whaling moratorium essentially snubbed a symbolic resolution passed by a one-vote majority last year that said the ban was meant to be temporary and was no longer needed.

Pro-whaling factions lobbied hard against the resolution, saying it would fuel the already tense relations between pro and anti-whaling nations that have been demonstrated during the four-day gathering.

The ban, enacted in 1986, aims to protect several vulnerable species. Pro-whaling nations, including Japan, Norway and Iceland, say populations have rebounded and the ban is no longer necessary. Norway and Iceland do not recognise the ban and conduct commercial whaling.

The commission also passed Greenland’s revised proposal to increase its aboriginal quota of minke whales to 200, as well as to hunt fin and bowhead whales. Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory, originally wanted to also add humpback whales, but met adamant opposition from critics who noted that the huge humpbacks and bowheads have low reproduction cycles.

The World Society for the Protection of Animals claimed anti-whaling nations - particularly the United States, UK and Netherlands – buckled and pushed the vote over the 75 per cent mark it needed to pass.

But while the Greenland proposal passed, the commission failed to reach consensus on Japan’s request.

Japan has long sought “community whaling” status, which would give it quotas similar to indigenous groups. Japan already kills more than 1,000 whales a year and sells the meat under a scientific research provision allowed by the IWC.

Its delegation said the number of minkes caught in that programme could be reduced by the number of whales caught in a community quota programme.

When that failed, Japan asked the IWC’s scientific committee to develop a method for calculating sustainable catch limits by next year’s meeting in Santiago, Chile. In the meantime, Japan said, it could make “interim arrangements” to help the coastal communities.

That measure also failed. Pro-whaling delegates said they couldn’t comprehend why Japan was treated differently from other groups with long traditions of whaling.