Bad news for whales - International Whaling Commission meeting ends

SANTIAGO — Whales emerged the big losers as a weeklong International Whaling Commission meeting wrapped up in Chile on Friday, conservation groups said after anti-whaling nations failed to halt No. 1 hunter Japan.

Anti-whale hunting nations led by Australia have voiced deep concern at Japan's skirting a nonbinding 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling by killing hundreds of whales each year in the name of scientific research.

Japan says it is unhappy with the moratorium and wants to resume commercial whaling, though detractors say it is already doing so in all but name.

The issue has generated so much tension that IWC Chair Bill Hogarth, seeking to avoid confrontation, set up a working group to try to build a consensus over the next year.

But that step, with nations urged not to vote against each other on Japanese whaling or calls for a South Atlantic whale sanctuary, means little was achieved at the meeting, environmentalists said.

"I think it was a disappointing week for whales," said Ralf Sonntag of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

"Japan goes home without any votes or resolutions against it. Iceland started a new round of commercial whaling just prior to this conference. So they are not taking it very seriously. Nothing has been achieved for the whales."

Japan gives itself a special permit to catch 1,000 whales each year despite the moratorium, while Norway and Iceland continue to hunt whales in defiance of the ban.

Aboriginals in Greenland, Russia and Alaska are granted special concessions for subsistence hunting.

Japan said it would not bow to pressure from the anti-whaling lobby and had not ruled out leaving the IWC altogether, but wanted to give dialogue a chance.

"Conservation groups might be disappointed at the meeting's outcome, but the real negotiation has to take place between the states," said Ryotaro Suzuki, senior co-ordinator of the ocean division of Japan's Foreign Ministry.

"I'm not telling you that we're going to stop the scientific research. All sorts of resolutions and talk about Japan-bashing in the past … didn't stop us," he added. "That's a reality, and conservation groups need to face that."

Asked if Japan would ever consider halting whaling altogether, Suzuki said, "Yes and no."

"We are not happy with the commercial whaling moratorium and we want the resumption of commercial whaling in a limited and sustainable way," he said.

Australia, which strongly opposes whaling and has proposed reforms such as joint non-lethal whale research with Japan and conservation management, put a brave face on the outcome.

"We would count it as having been in the main a constructive and positive engagement," said Australian Environment Minister Peter Garrett.

"We're opposed to commercial whaling, we think the moratorium should stay in place and we're opposed to so-called scientific whaling in the way it is being conducted by Japan," he said.

"There are significant potential activities that countries can engage in in terms of cetacean research and whale use which doesn't require whales to be killed," he added, referring to a burgeoning global whale-watching industry.

Conservation groups said they were heartened that anti-whaling nations blocked Greenland's bid to raise its hunt quota by 10 humpback whales this year, amid claims some whale meat is being sold in Greenland supermarkets.

"The real risk of this week was that it would be business as usual at the end of the meeting, and to a certain extent that is true," said Mick McIntyre, director of conservation group Whales Alive.

Source: Reuters

Contributed by Tim Hochgrebe added 2008-06-27

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Tim Hochgrebe added 2008-06-27

On the same note, a story from the Telegraph in the UK

Japanese 10-year-olds taken on school trips to whale slaughter

Japanese children as young as ten are watching whales being slaughtered to teach them the "cultural importance" of Japan's controversial commercial whaling industry.

As the whaling season gets under way, schoolchildren in Wada, 50 miles southeast of Tokyo, have been on field trips to see the first Baird's beaked whales of the year winched up the concrete slipway and carved up with razor-sharp flensing knives.

Smartly dressed and in bright yellow caps, the children took notes and sketched parts of the 36 foot whale as it was dismembered.

From their small boats, local fishermen will harpoon up to 26 of the whales during the three-month season. Wada can trace its whaling history back to 1612, when the 10-tonne whales were harpooned by hand. It is now one of just four communities permitted to conduct coastal whaling.

Much of the blubber is carved into bricks that are sold to local people, most of whom have eaten whale all their lives, and the remainder is packaged and sold to supermarkets.

Japan defies the International Whaling Commission's 1986 ban on commercial whaling by claiming that its catches are "research whaling", adding that the by-product of scientific research is not wasted.

A Japanese delegation is currently in Santiago, the Chilean capital, where the IWC is meeting, repeating the government line that the populations of minke, sperm and fin whales have recovered sufficiently since whaling was banned that commercial hunts should again be permitted.

Early discussions were described as peaceful and constructive, but Wednesday's session was marked by renewed accusations and finger-pointing involving Japan and Australia, one of the most vocal opponents of Tokyo's plans.

Peter Garrett, the Australian environment minister, said there was absolutely no need to kill whales for scientific purposes. "In Australia's view the programmes are in reality commercial whaling operations prohibited by the moratorium," Mr Garrett said. "It is no longer sufficient for us merely to oppose whaling under scientific permit. It's time for it to stop."

Joji Morishita, of the Japanese delegation, responded by claiming scientific whaling was "legitimate, necessary and delivers comprehensive data crucial to Japan's research".

He added that countries that oppose the research should "open their eyes".

Shigeko Misaki, a former spokeswoman for the Japan Whaling Association, said it was important that a new generation of Japanese was learning the nation's traditions.

"The anti-whaling campaign has gone too far," she said. "It has almost become a religion, that whales are the only symbol of the marine eco-system. People who believe this religion think all Japanese people are evil because we kill whales.

"Food security is a serious problem for Japan, particularly with rising fuel prices around the world, and the government and Japanese people should stand up and say that whale meat is a good food resource that should be used to provide protein," she said.

from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Emma added 2008-09-15: Sad news, we need to do all we can to protect them

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