Shaun Tandon Yahoo News 20 May 09;
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The outgoing head of the International Whaling Commission voiced regret Wednesday that his controversial drive to reach a compromise had failed, and said Japan needed to cede more ground.
William Hogarth steps down as both US delegate and the head of the deeply divided world whaling body after a meeting next month in Portugal, where he doubted any major progress would be reached.
The biologist, appointed by former president George W. Bush, faced heated questions at a congressional hearing from members of President Barack Obama's Democratic Party who accuse him of surrendering too much to Japan.
Pressed by the panel, Hogarth said that Japan -- which kills whales under a loophole in a global moratorium that allows "lethal research" on the ocean giants -- had not put enough on the table.
"The US does not think that it's a reasonable proposal whatsoever," Hogarth said.
"I think that if Japan is not willing to discuss (further), then I do not see any future for any resolution to this issue."
Hogarth, who is also dean of the University of South Florida's College of Marine Science, spearheaded a series of closed-door negotiations with Japan and other nations.
Japan offered to reduce but not end its annual Antarctic hunts which infuriate whale-loving Australia and New Zealand, participants say. Japan has also pushed for the International Whaling Commission, or IWC, to accept whaling off its coasts.
"I am very disappointed that I'm leaving the chairmanship and the US commission with the IWC (while) still killing lots of whales, doing scientific whaling and that we just can't seem to resolve it," Hogarth said.
However, Hogarth said his efforts brought civility to the IWC, where annual meetings had long been showdowns between pro- and anti-whaling nations.
Under a compromise brokered by Hogarth, Japan agreed in 2007 to suspend plans to expand its hunt to include humpback whales -- beloved by Australian whale-watchers -- for the first time in decades.
Japan says that whaling is its tradition and accuses Western nations of cultural insensitivity.
Norway and Iceland are the only nations that hunt whales in open defiance of the 1986 IWC moratorium.
