Slaughter ahead as whaling ban may end

The butchery of full-scale commercial whaling looms as the moratorium imposed on it is set to be harpooned.

Japan and other pro-whaling nations have gained a majority on the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and will overturn the moratorium “within years”. The moratorium was introduced in 1986 to save endangered whale species.

Japan, the leading pro-whaling nation, has consistently ignored the moratorium under the guise of scientific research.

About five years ago only 9 of the 55 member countries backed Japan.

Support increased to 15 in 2002 and then 21 in 2003. Specialists predict at least 35 countries are now in favour of ditching the moratorium.

“The IWC is deeply split,” Greg Donovan, the commission’s head of science, told Gulf News from the organisation’s headquarters in Cambridge.

“We are trying to work out a regulated system of sustainable killing, that can be properly verified and enforced, rather than the moratorium and scientific research that is the situation now.”

The Japanese are digging their heels in.

A Japanese Whaling Association official told Gulf News last night “that scientific research will continue,” regardless of any system introduced.

Under present IWC rules, there is no limit to the amount of whales that can be killed under the excuse of research.

Twelve months ago the Japanese Government gave the commission a year to implement a new management regime (sustainable killing) for whaling.

Greenpeace has frequently accused Japan of mounting a “hostile takeover” of the commission and vowed to continue efforts to keep the moratorium.

“We will block the excess pressure to capture whales by opening up the commercial whaling again,” Steve Shallhorn, Executive Director Greenpeace Japan, told Gulf News from Tokyo.

“The Japanese Government says that the whale population is increasing, however, it is only happening with certain species of whales.

For most whale species, the ocean is becoming an uninhabitable environment due to global warming and toxic pollution of the marine environment.”

A three-quarters majority at the commission is needed to overturn the moratorium.

Japan is a signatory to a moratorium on commercial whaling that has been in place since 1987.

The “scientific whaling” provision will allow Japan to hunt more than 760 whales this year.

According to the Japan Whaling Association, more than 2,500 tons of whale meat were consumed in the country last year. At a wholesale level, this industry is estimated to be worth 4 billion yen ( about Dh147 million) a year.

“There is now a strong move to resume commercial whaling within the IWC,” Sir Geoffrey Palmer, New Zealand’s representative on the commission, said.

“More nations are joining the commission on the pro-whaling side. The likelihood is that in the next few years efforts to rescind the moratorium will succeed.”So-called research whaling allows nations such as Japan and Iceland to harvest whales for scientific purposes, but the practice is dismissed by opponents as commercial whaling in disguise since the whale meat is sold on the commercial market.

The IWC also has no effective way of enforcing its international rules or punishing violators, he said.

“There must be changes to the enforcement provisions if there is to be a resumption of commercial whaling,” he added.

Palmer said damage inflicted on whale stocks by past wholesale commercial slaughter has not been repaired since the moratorium came into force, “neither is there any pressing human need to kill whales”.

Japan and other pro-whaling countries pushed to lift the whaling moratorium at last year’s IWC meeting, while the anti-whaling bloc opposed any move that might lead to ending the ban.

The outcome of the debate in Sorrento, Italy, was seen as a compromise between pro-whaling countries and the anti-whaling bloc — led by New Zealand and Australia.