South Korea wants whale quota if Japan gets deal: NGOs

Stephen Brown, Reuters 11 Mar 09;

ROME (Reuters) - Anti-whaling groups fear South Korea and other countries will try to resume whaling if Japan gets permission for limited catches on its coasts in return for stopping so-called "scientific" whaling in Antarctica.

Lobby groups following an International Whaling Commission (IWC) panel meeting in Rome ending on Wednesday said diplomatic efforts for a compromise with Japan could, by creating a new "coastal" catch category, open up a new loophole for whaling.

IWC Chairman Bill Hogarth said in a statement after the Rome talks that "opinions differ among the members" but that he hoped for agreement by the IWC's annual meeting in Madeira in June.

Japan officially observes the 1986 global moratorium on whaling -- unlike Iceland and Norway, which ignore it and carry out commercial whaling. But Japan still catches about 900 whales a year in Antarctic waters for what it calls research purposes.

Japan, which defends its right to scientific catches and says killing whales is no different from slaughtering any other animal, has also long sought a quota of 150 minke whales for coastal areas it says have been impoverished by the moratorium.

Most of the meat from scientific catches still ends up on dinner tables, angering animal welfare groups around the world who argue that many species face extinction and that explosive harpoons used by whalers can cause horrific suffering.

"DANGEROUS PRECEDENT"

A panel of the IWC -- set up in 1946 to conserve stocks -- is seeking a compromise deal for its annual meeting in Madeira in June to let Japan hunt minkes off its coast in return for ending Antarctic whaling or limiting it to sustainable levels.

"This sets a really dangerous precedent which South Korea underlined by saying that 'if Japan has impoverished coastal communities and wants a quota, then so have we'," said Claire Bass of the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA).

"This would open the floodgates for commercial whaling," the WSPA marine mammal programme manager told Reuters in Rome.

Nicolas Entrup, spokesman for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS), said minke whales in Korean waters already faced extinction because of "by-catching" -- when whales are accidentally caught in fishing nets, then sold for eating -- and would face an accelerated threat if Korea resumes whaling.

"We should be closing the loopholes that permit whaling rather than creating new loopholes," Entrup told Reuters.

Korean whaling helped supply the Japanese market for much of the 20th century, especially during Japanese occupation. It had a "scientific" catch of about 69 whales in 1986 but has since mostly abided by the global moratorium declared that year.

(Editing by Jon Boyle)

Whaling opponents slam commission over Japan talks
Gina Doggett Yahoo News 11 Mar 09;

ROME (AFP) – Whale campaigners on Wednesday slammed the International Whaling Commission over negotiations that may allow Japan to conduct commercial whaling near its coast while scaling down its activities in the Antarctic.

During three days of talks in Rome, South Korea said it may start commercial whaling if Japan wins the controversial compromise.

Conservationists slammed the development, while saying it was not unexpected.

"We've been warning all along that if Japan gets a deal other countries are going to want part of the action," Sue Fisher, policy director for North America for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS), told AFP.

Japan hunts hundreds of whales a year in the Pacific and Antarctic using a loophole in a 1986 IWC moratorium that allows "lethal scientific research" on the ocean giants.

Norway hunts whales on the strength of a formal reservation to the moratorium, while Iceland has set its own quota in defiance of the ban.

"Coastal whaling (for Japan) would legitimise what Iceland and Norway are doing," WDCS spokesman Nicolas Entrup told AFP. "The reputation of an international treaty needs to be held up."

Greenpeace issued a terse statement saying "no whales were saved" at the IWC meeting, which it described as "disturbingly uneventful" while calling for "an urgent plan of action that would stop whaling in Antarctic waters and begin the modernisation of the IWC."

The head of the 63-year-old IWC, which is to hold its annual meeting in Madeira, Portugal, June 22-26, voiced "cautious optimism" after the Rome talks.

"I am heartened at ... the general commitment to continue to further develop a set of proposals that can command broad agreement," said IWC chairman William Hogarth of the United States in a statement.

The IWC also "deplored acts of violence against ships and once again unanimously called for action to be taken by the relevant authorities," the statement said, referring to alleged attacks by anti-whaling campaigners on Japanese research vessels.

Ahead of the Rome meeting, US President Barack Obama's administration stated its firm opposition to commercial whaling.

"It is our view that any package, to be acceptable, must result in a significant improvement in the conservation status of whales," said Nancy Sutley, chair of the White House's Council on Environmental Quality.

Hogarth, who was appointed by former president George W. Bush, crafted the planned compromise with Japan in a bid to salvage the the 84-member IWC from collapse.

Japan has repeatedly threatened to leave the IWC if the body does not shift to what Tokyo believes is its original purpose -- managing a sustainable kill of whales.

Japan defends whaling as a tradition and accuses Westerners of disrespecting its culture.

Tokyo also asserts that the treaty requires that the "by-products" of the research are not wasted, and that the income from the sale of the meat partially offsets the cost of the research.

Japan's "political will is far greater than the combined political will of the pro-conservation governments," Fisher told AFP. "The whaling issue could be resolved very quickly if the right people paid attention to it."

Human impacts on whales have skyrocketed since the IWC was created, she said, citing climate change, pollution and fishing.

"Of all the threats to whales the one that's the simplest to fix is whaling," she said, adding that the commission "needs to reflect the reality of the situation now."

For Sara Holden of Greenpeace International, the irony is that there is "virtually no market for whale meat in Japan. It's not economically viable, and the science is neither needed nor wanted."

Greenpeace has conducted opinion polls among 15-to-59-year-olds in Japan finding that 90 percent of respondents "either never or very rarely eat" whale meat, said Holden, Greenpeace's international whales campaign coordinator.