12 Jun
2006 - By Dr Sue Lieberman* - This week’s meeting
of the International Whaling Commission (IWC)
in the Caribbean island nation of St Kitts and
Nevis will once again prove to be a bloody battleground
between those for and those against whaling. The
IWC adopted a global moratorium on commercial
whaling that became effective in 1986. With this
moratorium being challenged, the time may now
be upon us to resuscitate the “Save the Whales”
campaigns that proved so successful in the 1980s.
Japan, through its 20-year pro-whaling
lobbying strategy, is poised to claim “victory”
by gaining the majority of votes needed at the
IWC to set in course actions to dismantle the
rules that protect whales and prepare the way
for the eventual full resumption of commercial
whaling.
To achieve a simple majority
of the 69 IWC member nations, the Japanese government
has been actively, and unabashedly, targeting
West African countries and small developing island
states in the Caribbean and the Pacific to vote
in favour of their pro-whaling agenda.
Even with the current whaling
moratorium, Japan has been able to continue hunting
whales under an IWC loophole that allows for “scientific
whaling” by killing whales to allegedly investigate
their biology and migratory pathways. This “scientific
whaling” is unregulated, scientifically unwarranted,
and flagrantly carried out in protected areas,
particularly the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary,
which WWF helped to establish. This activity is
heavily subsidized by the government of Japan
and is nothing more than an excuse to kill whales
for Japan’s domestic meat market.
Japan is responsible for the
killing of more than 700 whales each year, including
endangered humpback and sei whales. The IWC has
made moves in recent years to address other conservation
threats to the world’s whales. But Japan has announced
publicly that if it obtains the simple majority,
it will immediately move for the removal of all
conservation issues from the IWC’s agenda.
WWF has been focusing on the
conservation of cetaceans and other marine mammals
for over 40 years and has worked for many years
to build the conservation agenda of the IWC and
its Scientific Committee, recognizing the serious
threat of issues beyond whaling and direct take
of whales and dolphins. This includes the catching
and drowning each year of thousands of whales
and dolphins in fishing gear (bycatch), climate
change and ship strikes. Bycatch, a top priority
of our work around the world, causes the deaths
of at least 300,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises
every year — nearly 1,000 each day.
With a pro-whaling majority,
WWF is concerned that these threats, all of which
have a devastating impact on whale populations,
will be dropped from the IWC’s programme of work.
A majority pro-whaling bloc could also bring in
secret ballots to the IWC for the first time —
Japan has asked for this for six years in a row
and has been defeated each time. Currently, all
votes are open and on public record, something
that WWF and conservation-friendly countries in
the IWC support in order to ensure transparency
and full accountability.
Although the IWC moratorium
on commercial whaling is expected to stay in place
for now — as it requires a three-quarter majority
to be overturned — some predict that if Japan
gets a simple majority this year, it will be a
just a matter of time before they get the votes
to resume full-scale commercial whaling.
In response to a likely shift
to the pro-whaling lobby, WWF has been using its
global influence to encourage more conservation-minded
countries to join the IWC, despite the prohibitively
high dues for developing countries to join.
We have also been lobbying developing
countries that have voted with Japan in the past
to commit to the responsible use of global marine
resources and consider the benefits of whales
within marine ecosystems, and the economic benefits
of whales to coastal communities from activities
such as whale-watching. Millions of tourists go
whale-watching each year, contributing to tourism
revenue that exceeds over US$1 billion.
This will be a decisive meeting
of the IWC, one that could decide the fate of
the future of whale populations around the world
for years to come. If Japan wins the simple majority,
perhaps the world will finally wake up. For those
countries that have been too apathetic or disinterested
in joining the debate, the shock to their citizens
may be a decisive factor in bringing them on board.
For those countries who are members, the time
will soon arrive for their citizens to insist
on strong conservation action, not rhetoric.
The sad reality is that it appears
no one cares enough while the patient lies dying,
yet they’ll all come to the funeral. We hope not
to return to wearing funeral garb.
* Dr Susan Lieberman is Director
of WWF’s Global Species Programme.
