Whaling Commission Proposes Return to Commercial Whaling

Environment News Service 22 Feb 10;

CAMBRIDGE, UK, February 22, 2010 (ENS) - A working group of the International Whaling Commission today released a draft proposal that would allow the return of commercial whaling. An IWC moratorium on commercial whaling has been in place since 1986.

The compromise is aimed at unblocking the long-stalled negotiation process between IWC member countries opposed to commercial whaling and those that want to kill whales.

The draft Consensus Decision by the Small Working Group on the Future of IWC would allow only the countries that currently take whales under the "research" provisions of the treaty to hunt them under the proposed management regime. Those countries are Japan, Norway, Iceland and the Faroe Islands, which together kill some 1,500 whales a year. Indigenous subsistence whaling also would be allowed to continue.

The draft proposal would bring whaling by all 88 member countries under the control of the IWC. Currently, the IWC has no control over whaling under objection/reservation to the treaty or whaling under special permit, the so-called "research whaling."

The proposal establishes caps of takes that are "within sustainable levels" for a 10 year period, although most of those quotas are not specified in the draft document but are marked "TBD," to be decided. The draft comments that catches would be reduced "significantly" from current levels.

Currently, Japan has a six-vessel whaling fleet in Antarctic waters as part of its scientific whaling program. It targets up to 900 minke whales, which are not an endangered species, plus 50 endangered fin whales.

In 2009, Japan took 679 minke whales and one fin whale for a five-month effort in the Southern Ocean, spending much time and effort in clashes with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Japan's goal had been to kill up to 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales.

The IWC proposal states that a fundamental component of the Consensus Decision is that the commission will "focus on the recovery of depleted whale stocks and take actions on key issues, including bycatch, climate change and other environmental threats."

But environmental groups are outraged by the proposal.

From its office in Amsterdam today, Greenpeace International called for the proposal by to be rejected out of hand, describing it as a dangerous throwback to the 20th century when whales where hunted to near extinction.

"The proposal rewards Japan for decades of reprehensible behavior at the International Whaling Commission and in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary," said John Frizell, Head of the Greenpeace Whales Campaign.

"We are at a critical junction for both whaling and ocean conservation," said Frizell. "A return to commercial whaling would not only be a disaster for whales but will send shock waves through international ocean conservation efforts, making it vastly more difficult to protect other rapidly-declining species such as tuna and sharks."

From its headquarters in Gland, Switzerland today, WWF-International said the new draft compromise on whaling "set a dangerous precedent that the international community must reject."

WWF said that while the compromise "contains many positive elements for whale conservation that would help bring the IWC into the 21st Century," the compromise could legitimize whaling by Japan in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

"If there is one single place in the world where whales should be fully protected, it is the Southern Ocean," said Wendy Elliott, species manager at WWF-International. "What we need is to eliminate all whaling in the Southern Ocean, including Japanese commercial whaling thinly disguised as 'scientific research.'"

"But what we have now is a deal which could make it even easier for Japan to continue taking whales in this ecologically unique place," Elliott said.

The IWC supposedly provides special protection to a critical whale feeding area, the Southern Ocean, surrounding the continent of Antarctica, which the IWC established as a 50 million square kilometer whale sanctuary in 1994. "This extra layer of protection signifies the importance of this area as the primary feeding habitat of many of the Southern Hemisphere�s whale populations," Elliott said.

The proposal sets a process in motion that could endorse quotas which have not yet had a full and proper scientific review. "It is difficult to see how determining quotas through politics rather than science can be considered progress," said Elliott.

The draft Consensus Decision will be discussed by a group of IWC countries at a meeting in March, with the intention that it will be adopted by the IWC at its next full meeting in Agadir, Morocco in June.

New whaling compromise is step backwards for whales
WWF 23 Feb 10;

A new draft compromise on whaling released by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) today set a dangerous precedent that the international community must reject, WWF said.

A working group within the IWC today unveiled a new compromise aimed at unlocking the stalled negotiation process between countries fundamentally opposed to whaling and states that support it.

While the compromise contains many positive elements for whale conservation that would help bring the IWC into the 21st Century, the compromise could legitimise ‘scientific’ whaling by Japan in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

“If there is one single place in the world where whales should be fully protected, it is the Southern Ocean,” said Wendy Elliott, Species Manager at WWF-International. “What we need is to eliminate all whaling in the Southern Ocean, including Japanese commercial whaling thinly disguised as ‘scientific research’. But what we have now is a deal which could make it even easier for Japan to continue taking whales in this ecologically unique place.”

The IWC has maintained a ban on all commercial whaling since 1986. But, defying this ban, Japan, Norway and Iceland use loopholes in the IWC’s founding treaty to kill more than 1,500 whales a year. The loopholes allow whaling under ‘objection’ to management decisions (Norway and Iceland) and “scientific” whaling for research purposes (Japan).

The IWC also provides special protection to a critical whale feeding area, the Southern Ocean surrounding the continent of Antarctica, which the IWC established as a 50 million square kilometre whale sanctuary in 1994. This extra layer of protection signifies the importance of this area as the primary feeding habitat of many of the Southern Hemisphere’s whale populations.

Additionally, the proposal sets a process in motion that could endorse quotas which haven’t yet had a full and proper scientific review. “It is difficult to see how determining quotas through politics rather than science can be considered progress,” added Elliott.

The are some positive aspects of the compromise including increased efforts to secure the recovery of depleted whale populations, action on critical conservation threats facing whales such as such as bycatch and climate change, and improved governance and compliance. However, the compromise cannot be accepted by WWF as long as it allows whaling in the Southern Ocean.

The new compromise which will be discussed by a group of IWC countries at a meeting in March, is intended to be adopted by the IWC at its next full meeting in June this year.

Whaling plan to okay hunts in return for fewer kills
Kyoko Hasegawa Yahoo News 23 Feb 10;

TOKYO (AFP) – The global body that regulates whaling has proposed giving the green light to Japan to keep hunting the sea mammals in return for reducing the number of animals killed.

Greenpeace and the World Wide Fund for Nature harshly condemned the draft plan which aims to unlock stalled talks when the 85-nation International Whaling Commission (IWC) meets next month in Florida.

While Greenpeace called it "a dangerous throwback to the 20th century when whales were hunted to near extinction", the WWF said it "could legitimise ?scientific? whaling by Japan in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary".

Commercial whaling has been banned worldwide since 1986 but Japan justifies its annual hunts in the Antarctic and Northwestern Pacific as lethal "scientific research" under a loophole permitted by the IWC.

Norway and Iceland also hunt whales, claiming it is central to their culture. Between them, the three nations have killed more than 30,000 whales since the moratorium was declared, says the IWC.

The draft -- which has not been agreed by members, and which leaves whale catch quotas undecided -- would allow Japan to keep hunting the ocean giants, but under stricter monitoring, including DNA sampling of whale meat.

Cristian Maquieira, the body's chairman, described the proposal as a "paradigm shift" designed to bring whaling back under IWC control, reduce the numbers killed and regulate it to ensure a healthy whale population.

The proposal comes as Japan's annual whale hunt in Antarctic waters has again made headlines in recent weeks, with its harpoon ships clashing repeatedly with militant environmentalists the Sea Shepherds.

Anti-whaling nation Australia last weekend warned it would launch legal action against Japan in the International Criminal Court unless it commits before November to ending its annual whale hunts.

Japan makes no secret of the fact that the meat of whales it kills is sold in restaurants and shops, and maintains that whaling is an important and centuries-old tradition for the island-nation.

Under the IWC draft proposal, whaling ships would be fitted with satellite monitoring systems, and DNA registries and market sampling would be introduced to detect illegal whaling and enforce quotas.

Commenting on the draft, Japan's Fisheries Minister Hirotaka Akamatsu said only that in the IWC talks "we will be flexible, but we will also seek to gain 60 or 70 percent of what we've been demanding".

A Japanese fisheries agency official said the new proposal "aimed at breaking the deadlock in the IWC, setting aside the arguments on the nature of whaling -- whether it is commercial whaling or scientific, or whaling by indigenous people for their subsistence".

"We can't comment on whether the proposal is good or bad for Japan," the official, Toshinori Uoya added.

Greenpeace, a veteran opponent of whaling, was scathing about the draft.

"The proposal rewards Japan for decades of reprehensible behaviour at the International Whaling Commission and in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary," said John Frizell, head of the Greenpeace Whales Campaign.

"We are at a critical junction for both whaling and ocean conservation. A return to commercial whaling would not only be a disaster for whales but will send shockwaves through international ocean conservation efforts."

In the draft document, a table features catch limits for the next 10 years, including for Japanese whaling of minke whales in its coastal waters while it leaves the annual quotas "to be decided".

"The only number that should be decided is zero," said Frizell.