Whales lose, Japan wins as whaling meet ends

Simon Gardner, Reuters 27 Jun 08;

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Whales emerged the big losers as a weeklong International Whaling Commission meeting wrapped up in Chile on Friday, conservation groups said after anti-whaling nations failed to halt No. 1 hunter Japan.

Anti-whale hunting nations led by Australia have voiced deep concern at Japan's skirting a nonbinding 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling by killing hundreds of whales each year in the name of scientific research.

Japan says it is unhappy with the moratorium and wants to resume commercial whaling, though detractors say it is already doing so in all but name.

The issue has generated so much tension that IWC Chairman Bill Hogarth, seeking to avoid confrontation, set up a working group to try to build consensus over the next year.

But that step, with nations urged not to vote against each other on Japanese whaling or calls for a South Atlantic whale sanctuary, means little was achieved at the meeting, environmentalists said.

"I think it was a disappointing week for whales," said Ralf Sonntag of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

"Japan goes home without any votes or resolutions against it. Iceland started a new round of commercial whaling just prior to this conference. So they are not taking it very seriously. Nothing has been achieved for the whales."

Japan gives itself a special permit to catch 1,000 whales each year despite the moratorium, while Norway and Iceland continue to hunt whales in defiance of the ban.

Aboriginals in Greenland, Russia and Alaska are granted special concessions for subsistence hunting.

NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN STATES

Japan said it would not bow to pressure from the anti-whaling lobby and had not ruled out leaving the IWC altogether, but wanted to give dialogue a chance.

"Conservation groups might be disappointed at the meeting's outcome, but the real negotiation has to take place between the states," said Ryotaro Suzuki, senior coordinator of the ocean division of Japan's Foreign Ministry.

"I'm not telling you that we're going to stop the scientific research. All sorts of resolutions and talk about Japan-bashing in the past ... didn't stop us," he added. "That's a reality, and conservation groups need to face that."

Asked if Japan would ever consider halting whaling altogether, Suzuki said: "Yes and no."

"We are not happy with the commercial whaling moratorium and we want the resumption of commercial whaling in a limited and sustainable way," he said.

Australia, which strongly opposes whaling and has proposed reforms like joint nonlethal whale research with Japan and conservation management, put a brave face on the outcome.

"We would count it as having been in the main a constructive and positive engagement," said Australian Environment Minister Peter Garrett.

"We're opposed to commercial whaling, we think the moratorium should stay in place and we're opposed to so-called scientific whaling in the way it is being conducted by Japan," he said.

"There are significant potential activities that countries can engage in in terms of cetacean research and whale use which doesn't require whales to be killed," he added, referring to a burgeoning global whale-watching industry.

Conservation groups said they were heartened that anti-whaling nations blocked Greenland's bid to raise its hunt quota by 10 humpback whales this year, amid claims some whale meat is being sold in Greenland supermarkets.

"The real risk of this week was that it would be business as usual at the end of the meeting, and to a certain extent that is true," said Mick McIntyre, director of conservation group Whales Alive.

(Editing by Xavier Briand)

Whale meet ends with peace agenda
Richard Black, BBC News 27 Jun 08;

Environment correspondent, BBC News website, Santiago

The annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) has ended with member governments agreeing to try and resolve their differences.

The next year will see intensive dialogue between pro- and anti-whaling countries, and could lead to a package deal next year.

But there is still significant water between the camps on key issues.

The meeting also decided to embark on a research programme into the impact of climate change on whales.

The only vote of the meeting saw Greenland's bid to add humpback whales to the annual hunt by its indigenous Inuit communities defeated.

IWC chairman William Hogarth, the US commissioner, was cautiously optimistic that the peace talks might bear fruit.

"I was basically very happy with the meeting, although I don't think it's going to be easy, there are definitely some big issues such as the lethal take of whales and scientific research whaling," he told BBC News.

"The number of whales being killed is increasing; and I think the way we ought to be looking at this, from the point of view of countries that are anti-whaling, is how can we reduce that number?"

All members of the commission, ranging from the strongest whaling nations including Japan to the most vociferous opponents such as the UK and Australia, have endorsed the idea of seeking compromise, although some were pessimistic about its prospects when talking on the meeting's fringes.

The most fundamental demand of anti-whaling nations would be that Japan halts its scientific whaling programme in the Antarctic, and perhaps agrees to close the provision for scientific hunting completely.

"I don't think we can give (it) up, and we have a very basic position that we have to guard," said Japan's alternate (deputy) IWC commissioner Joji Morishita.

"But I keep saying that we can still talk to each other; we have differences of opinion, differences of position, but that does not mean we cannot talk to each other."

For their part, Japan and the other active hunting nations - Norway and Iceland - would probably have as their most fundamental demand that the global moratorium on commercial whaling is at least partially lifted to allow hunting in coastal waters.

Stuck fast

Environmental and animal welfare groups are divided on the merits of the peace plan.

Some agree with Dr Hogarth's view that it might lead to a fall in the number of whales killed, while others say there should be no compromise, and are angry with anti-whaling governments including the US for pursuing the initiative.

"It's not just the interests of the American people that are being abandoned, but also the future of the world's whales," said DJ Schubert of the Animal Welfare Institute.

But Wendy Elliott of WWF's global species programme said a dialogue was worthwhile.

"We cannot continue in the scenario that we have at the moment; we need to see a resolution to this impasse," she said.

Conservation groups were also pleased with the decision to set up an initiative on climate change and cetaceans. Changes to sea ice in the polar regions has the potential to impact some species severely.

Several groups also presented studies concluding that the argument that whales need to be hunted in order to increase the availability of fish for human consumption - which circulates among some of the pro-whaling bloc - is simply wrong.

"We've shown that even in those areas where whales do eat commercial fish species, the whales are a minor factor in rises and falls of fish stocks, and the dynamics of those systems can be much better explained by looking at interactions between fish species themselves," said Ms Elliott.

Officials from IWC member governments will now embark on a series of discussions leading to the next full meeting in Portugal in a year's time.

Whaling Foes Vilify Japan Despite Norway, Iceland Hunts
James Owen, National Geographic News 27 Jun 08;

For the anti-whaling lobby, Japan appears to be its Moby Dick, a foe to be singled out and endlessly pursued.

For example, activists chased Japanese whalers across the Southern Ocean under a full media glare this past winter.

But are the attacks fair, when other nations also engage in substantial amounts of whaling—and unlike Japan, in open defiance of international conventions?

Hunting opponents seeking to influence the International Whaling Commission (IWC), the world regulatory body, at its annual meeting in Santiago, Chile, this week were unequivocal.

Japan is the "head of the zombie and needs to be cut off," said Willie Mackenzie, oceans campaigner for Greenpeace U.K. "It's very, very clear that, internationally, Japan is behind the drive towards commercial whaling."

Japan not only kills the most whales, Mackenzie said, but it is also trying to "undermine" the international moratorium on commercial whaling and challenge the endangered status of some species.

Yet Norway and Iceland also have substantial whaling programs—and do so not under the auspices of research but commercially, flouting IWC rules that have banned such activities since 1986.

"Japanese people feel that, yes, maybe there is a little bit of racism in the way in which we are considered in comparison with the way Norway or other whaling nations are treated," said Noriko Hama, a professor of economics at Doshisha University in Kyoto.

"If Japan continues whaling, we're 'barbarians.' But at the same time, I think Japan is giving its critics the excuse to level those accusations, because the government is simply not coming clean on its whaling policy," she said.

According to IWC figures, Japanese ships killed 866 whales in the 2006-2007 season, a haul that included minke, fin, sei, and sperm whales—the most of any nation. Norway placed second with a total catch of 545 whales.

Scientific Loophole

Whereas Norway and Iceland are both hunting commercially, Japan has at least kept to the letter, if not the spirit, of the IWC moratorium by killing whales under the aegis of scientific research.

Activists counter, however, that this is just a cynical ruse in Japan's efforts to lead a pro-whaling bloc to change IWC policy.

Environmentalists and some anti-whaling governments accuse Japan, for instance, of trying to reverse the commercial hunting ban by buying the voting support of poorer nations.

"Smaller countries in places like the Caribbean, West Africa, and the Pacific that have had no historic interest in the IWC or whaling, and for whom whaling certainly is not a priority, turn up at the behest of Japan with money that has come from Japanese taxpayers," Mackenzie said.

Conservation groups also take issue with where Japan hunts for whales.

Whaling countries such as Norway and Iceland confine whaling to coastal regions inside their own waters, but Japan is the only nation that still exploits Antarctic seas, now an internationally recognized sanctuary for whales.

Greenpeace still supports subsistence whale hunts by native peoples in Arctic waters. In 2006, Greenland inhabitants alone accounted for almost 200 whale kills, including 11 fin whales, which are listed as an endangered species by the World Conservation Union (IUCN).

"Greenpeace doesn't campaign against aboriginal subsistence whaling, because it's not the problem," Mackenzie said.

That view isn't shared by the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), one of the few groups to campaign against subsistence whaling.

WSPA recently released findings suggesting that at least 25 percent of meat from the Greenland whale harvest is sold through commercial companies to supermarkets.

Taking Flak

Claire Bass, marine mammals program manager with the WSPA, says other whaling nations do appear to get off lightly compared with Japan.

"I think it's part of the strategy of countries like Norway to stand behind Japan and use them to take most of the flak," Bass said from Santiago.

The Japanese, Bass said, "are the most aggressively pro-whaling" nation. She noted, for example, that Japan has tried for many years to have discussions about animal welfare and small cetaceans removed from the IWC's agenda.

"They stand in the way of all the positive conservation work that the IWC could be doing," she added. "They believe the IWC should be focusing all of its efforts on resuming whaling."

Allowing the IWC to concentrate on threats such as climate change, ship strikes, marine noise, overfishing, and net entanglement would only undermine Japan's case for resuming commercial whaling, Bass said.

Food Security

Shigeko Misaki, a former spokeswoman for the Japan Whaling Association, said the anti-whaling campaign has gone too far.

"It has almost become a religion, that whales are the only symbol of the marine ecosystem," she said. "People who believe this religion think all Japanese people are evil, because we kill whales.

"Food security is a serious problem for Japan, particularly with rising fuel prices around the world. And the government and Japanese people should stand up and say that whale meat is a good food resource that should be used to provide protein," Misaki said.

Hama, the economics professor, said it is a "farce" for the Japanese government to call its annual whale haul "research whaling."

"We should be more like the Norwegians and be quite open about what we are doing. If Japan is going to hunt whales, then it should just come out and say that is what it is going to do."

Bass, of the WSPA, conceded that cultural differences do color the debate.

"Japan manages whales under their fisheries agency. They basically see them as big fish," she said. "We see them as intelligent, charismatic, captivating creatures. So I wouldn't deny there's a difference in the starting point at which we view whales."

Julian Ryall in Tokyo contributed to this report.