Elida Moreno PlanetArk 6 Jul 12;
South Korea's proposal to resume whaling for scientific research has angered other Asian countries and conservationists who said the practice would skirt a global ban on whale hunting.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said she would fight the proposal, which was made on Wednesday at a meeting of the International Whaling Commission in Panama City, while the United States said it planned to take the matter up with the South Korean government.
Critics said the move to pursue whaling in domestic waters was modeled on Japan's introduction of scientific whaling after the IWC imposed a 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling.
Japan says it has a right to monitor the whales' impact on its fishing industry. South Korea says whaling is a long-standing cultural tradition.
Anti-whaling activists regularly harass Japanese vessels engaging in their annual whale hunt in the Southern Ocean off Australia and Antarctica, with the two sides sometimes clashing violently. At least one activist boat has sunk in recent years.
In Seoul, a government official said South Korea abided by international regulations and it would be up to the IWC to assess its proposal.
"We've submitted a proposal to the IWC's Scientific Committee to resume scientific whaling in our waters and will await the committee's assessment," said an official at the Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry.
"If it says it is not adequate in their assessment of the legitimacy of scientific research, we'll make further preparations."
South Korea said its fishermen were complaining that growing whale populations were depleting fishing stocks, an assertion the World Wildlife Fund said had no scientific basis.
Environmental activists dismissed the term scientific whaling as a thinly veiled ruse to conduct commercial whaling.
"It's an absolute shock this happened at this meeting and it's an absolute disgrace because to say that hunting whales is happening in the name of science is just wrong," James Lorenz from Greenpeace told Australian television. "Essentially, it's commercial whaling in another form."
The minke whales that South Korea proposes hunting are considered endangered, the World Wildlife Fund said in a statement.
Former Australian Environment Minister Ian Campbell, now on the board of the anti-whaling activist group Sea Shepherd, said the organization would "have to get organized to go out to the oceans and save the whales off South Korea."
AUSTRALIA TO PROTEST
Australia has long opposed Japanese whaling and Gillard said it would lodge a diplomatic protest against South Korea's move.
"We will make our voices heard today," she told reporters. "Our ambassador will speak to counterparts in South Korea at the highest levels of the South Korea government and indicate Australia's opposition to this decision."
Australia has filed a complaint against Japan at the International Court of Justice in The Hague to stop scientific whaling. A decision is expected in 2013 or later.
New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully said the announcement was a setback to global conservation efforts as whales in its waters were already targeted by Japan.
"The portrayal of this initiative as a 'scientific' program will have no more credibility than the so-called scientific program conducted by Japan, which has long been recognized as commercial whaling in drag," he said in a statement.
In Washington, the State Department repeated that the United States remained committed to the moratorium on commercial whaling.
"We're concerned about South Korea's announcement," State Department spokeswoman Patrick Ventrell said. "We plan to discuss this with the South Korean government."
Panama's delegate to the IWC conference, Tomas Guardia, denounced the South Korean proposal "because it goes against the ban ... we don't support whale hunting under any circumstances".
Twitter was awash with condemnations.
"I don't care what justification you give," wrote a user identifying herself as Savannah, from Australia. "It's crap. Stop killing whales."
Many Koreans view whale meat as a delicacy. Murals some 5,000 years old depicting whaling have been excavated around Ulsan, center of the whaling industry on the southeastern coast since the late 19th century.
Officials say that before South Korea joined the moratorium in 1986, its average annual catch was 600 whales, most of which were consumed. Whaling is now subject to prosecution and punishable by a jail or fines, but meat is available from mostly minke that get caught in fishing nets "by accident" or wash ashore.
(Additional reporting by; Jack Kim and Laeticia Ock in Seoul, James Grubel and Maggie Lu YueYang in Canberra and Andrew Quinn in Washington. Writing by Ron Popeski; Editing by Daniel Magnowski and Peter Cooney)
South Korean whale hunt plan attacked
Proposal to kill creatures for scientific research met with anger from Australia, New Zealand and campaign groups
Justin McCurry guardian.co.uk 5 Jul 12
moratorium that South Korea aims to exploit. Photograph: Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty
Australia and other countries have condemned a South Korean plan to begin killing whales in its coastal waters in the name of scientific research.
The proposal, announced at a meeting of the International Whaling Commission [IWC] in Panama, would allow South Korea to use a loophole in the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling to hunt the mammals under the guise for of scientific research.
Japan uses the same clause to kill hundreds of whales in the Antarctic every year, although for the past two years its fleet has returned with a fraction of its planned catch following confrontations with the marine conservation group Sea Shepherd.
The South Korean delegation did not say how many whales it would kill, but insisted it did not need foreign approval. It added that minke whale numbers in its coastal waters had recovered since the moratorium went into effect.
Citing a tradition of whale meat consumption in South Korea, the country's head envoy to the IWC, Kang Joon-Suk, said: "Legal whaling has been strictly banned and subject to strong punishments, though the 26 years have been painful and frustrating for the people who have been traditionally taking whales for food."
Kang said South Korean whalers would operate in coastal waters, unlike Japan, which has angered Australia, New Zealand and other countries by sending a fleet to the Southern Ocean every winter.
The Australian prime minister, Julia Gillard, said she would fight condemned the new proposal, whilst"We will make our voices heard today," she told reporters. "Our ambassador will speak to counterparts in South Korea at the highest levels of the South Korea government and indicate Australia's opposition to this decision." Australia's former environment minister, Ian Campbell, told Australian television from aboard a Sea Shepherd vessel that the group would "have to get organised to go out to the oceans and save the whales off South Korea". New Zealand's envoy, Gerard van Bohemen, condemned the proposal and urged South Korea to consider non-lethal research methods. He said the plan was "unnecessary and borders on the reckless. New Zealand is strongly opposed to Korea's proposal"."
An official in Seoul said South Korea had every right to monitor the impact whales were having on the country's fishing industry. "We've submitted a proposal to the IWC's scientific committee to resume scientific whaling in our waters and will await the committee's assessment," the official told Reuters. "If it says it is not adequate in their assessment of the legitimacy of scientific research, we'll make further preparations."
The World Wildlife Fund said there was no evidence for claims by South Korean fishermen that whales were depleting coastal fish stocks, adding that minke whales are considered endangered.
James Lorenz, a Greenpeace spokesman, told Australian televisionsaid: "It's an absolute shock this happened at this meeting and it's an absolute disgrace because to say that hunting whales is happening in the name of science is just wrong.Essentially, it's commercial whaling in another form."Most international criticism has been directed at Japan's insistence on hunting whales and selling their meat on the open market, but many Koreans also consider whale meat a delicacy.
Before the 1986 ban, South Korea said it caught about 600 whales a year and that most of the meat was consumed. It currently sells whale meat from animals accidentally caught in fishing nets.
In Japan, however, the appetite for whale meat is in decline, according to a recent report.
