Whaling Debate Heats Up

A D E L A I D E, Japan, July 3, 2000 -- — Pressure on Japan to stophunting whales in the Antarctic is expected to mount after theInternational Whaling Commission said today it is no longersure how many Minke whales still live in the region.

The IWC’s scientific committee said new research suggestedthe real number of minke whales in the southern hemisphere couldbe “appreciably lower” than the long-accepted estimate of76,000 which has been promoted by Japan to defend its culls.

“We can’t give a number for the total population at thispresent time,” committee chairwoman Judy Zeh told the IWC’sannual meeting which opened in Australia today.

Japan caught more than 500 minke whales last year for whatit calls scientific purposes and, with Norway, it is seeking tolift a 1986 ban on commercial whaling. Norway plans to kill 655minkes this year under a complaint it has registered on the ban.

Earlier, Japan attacked moves by Australia to establish aSouth Pacific whale sanctuary, saying the plan had “noscientific justification,” but the Japanese delegation failedin a bid to ban Greenpeace environmentalists from the IWCmeeting.

The Battle ContinuesThe three-day meeting opened as an unprecedented publicrelations battle continued between pro-whalers — Japan, Norwayand the High North Alliance group — and anti-whaling groups.

Delegates from the IWC’s 40 member nations were met onarrival by the recorded sounds of whales singing and peacefulprotest vigils from both sides of the whaling divide.

Inside the forum, Japan accused Greenpeace of “illegal andviolent” action during a protest against Japanese whalers atsea in the Antarctic last year, saying the protesters had riskedthe lives and safety of the vessel’s crew and researchers.

But its move to quash Greenpeace’s observer status failed,opposed by the United States, Britain and other key nations,with support only from Caribbean nations Antigua, St. Kitts andNevis.

“This is the strongest public support for Greenpeace’s rolein campaigning for an end to the unsustainable practice ofcommercial whaling that we have ever seen,” Greenpeace said ina statement after the Japanese move failed.

Greenpeace and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said therenewed uncertainty over whale numbers should add to pressure onJapan to end its controversial whaling in Antarctica.

“Clearly it is no longer appropriate to argue that minkewhales are as plentiful as ever, particularly as they faceincreasing threats from marine pollution, entanglement in debrisand climate change,” WWF spokeswoman Cassandra Phillips said.

Double Standards?Japanese IWC commissioner Minoru Morimoto singled outAustralia for criticism over its Pacific sanctuary proposal,which is to be put to a vote on Tuesday, accusing it of “doublestandards” given millions of kangaroos are killed each year.

“Perhaps if we renamed [minke whales] the kangaroos of thesea, the Australian public and [Environment Minister RobertHill] would support their sustainable use,” he told themeeting.

Backed by the High North Alliance of whalers from Canada,the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland and Norway, Morimoto saidAustralia should quit the IWC rather than try to change it rolefrom that of a whaling regulator to a conservation body.

“This is a body to manage whaling, it is not a body tomanage whale-watching,” said the Alliance’s Rune Frovik fromNorway.

Hill later told reporters that lobbying would continue totry to win the required 75 percent of votes needed for thesanctuary which would complement protected areas in the Southernand Indian oceans.

He conceded it was a “difficult” task to win the necessarysupport, but said the IWC must, in future, reflect the “verystrong anti-whaling sentiment” he sensed across the globe.

“That tug of war between those who concentrate on thecommercial exploitation of whales through hunting and those whosee the body’s future more akin to an international conservationbody, I think, will continue for some years,” he said.

Japan however disputed Hill’s claim, saying there wasgrowing understanding of whaling not only for it at home, butfrom countries like the U.S and Australia.