By Melissa Segrest
Green Right Now
Whale conservation groups were steeling themselves for the worst, but they were in for a surprise.
A 24-year ban on commercial whaling that was in danger of being lifted will remain in place. The International Whaling Commission, which was created by the United Nations in the 1980s to regulate whale hunting worldwide, decided Wednesday that there was too much opposition and too many unanswered questions to allow some countries to hunt whales with fewer restrictions. The decision came at the end of the commission’s three-day meeting this year in Morocco.
Humpback whale breaching (Photo: Brett Atkins/Dreamstime.com)
The 88 member countries of the IWC have been divided for years over the restrictions placed on hunting whales. Even the current ban does not stop some countries from catching whales, which are then used for their meat in restaurants and supermarkets.
The countries that hunt whales are primarily Japan, Norway and Iceland. Since the moratorium was enacted, the three countries have killed an estimated 35,000 whales. The vast majority are caught by Japan, many in the Southern Ocean – which is an internationally recognized whale sanctuary.
Japanese whale hunters use a loophole in the IWC moratorium that allows hunting for “scientific” research – despite the fact that thousands of pounds of pricey whale meat end up on people’s dinner plates in Japan. The Japanese whalers catch primarily minke whales, but also harpoon endangered fin and humpback whales, according to Greenpeace.
Whale meat is considered a gourmet treat in some countries (Photo: Kavring/Dreamstime.com.)
Iceland and Norway have flatly refused to comply with the IWC’s moratorium, and the commission does not have the authority to stop them.
Initially, the U.S. intended to favor lifting the moratorium. Douglas DeMaster, chairman of the IWC’s scientific committee and also deputy commissioner for the U.S. delegation, at one point supported removing the restrictions. His and several other non-whaling pro-conservation countries’ position was that by lifting the ban and replacing it with strictly supervised, controlled and enforceable limits on whale hunting, the number of whales slaughtered would decrease.
With the current moratorium, the IWC has no enforcement power, which means Japan, Iceland and Norway can set their own limits, DeMaster was quoted as saying.
In the end, the U.S. voted along with other conservation-minded countries such as Australia, New Zealand and many European nations, to keep the ban in place. The alternative, they decided, was too risky and might allow for the kind of excessive whale hunting that put several species of whales on the brink of extinction several decades ago.
Those countries will continue to pressure the commission to close loopholes used to slaughter whales, and to give the IWC teeth with which to enforce its rulings.
The meeting was under close scrutiny because of a series of stories in The Times of London revealing that Japan has routinely paid off IWC representatives from several poor, small non-whaling countries with money and aid in exchange for their pro-hunting votes.
In addition, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society documented last month that Greenland also is slaughtering whales to sell meat in restaurants and markets. Greenland is among a handful of countries that are allowed by the IWC to hunt a limited number of whales for the express purpose of providing indigenous people with cultural and nutritional subsistence needs.
The IWC refers to those limited needs as “aboriginal subsistence whaling.”
In Greenland, that whale meat intended for the native Inuit people was ending up in markets and restaurants, especially those catering to tourists.
Greenland had asked the IWC to increase its whaling quota by 10 humpback whales until this report was made public. Now they have been forced to not only withdraw that request, but to show that the whales they kill are used only by the Inuit.
The United States’ official statement at the commission meeting stated: “. . . the United States continues to support the commercial whaling moratorium. We strongly opposed lethal scientific whaling – we strongly believe it unnecessary for modern whale conservation and management.”
The U.S. went on to say that it is concerned about the slaughter of whales in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary, and by growing international and black-market trade in whale meat and products.
Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by GRN Network
