15 Jun
2006 - St Kitts and Nevis – On the eve of 58th
International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting,
a new WWF poll reveals that citizens from ten
countries in the Pacific and Caribbean, whose
governments repeatedly vote to resume commercial
whaling, do not support the hunting and killing
of whales.
The WWF poll was carried out
in Palau, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, the Marshall
Islands, Kiribati, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda,
Dominica, St Lucia, and St Kitts and Nevis, where
the IWC meeting is being held.
The poll included questions
on: awareness of the IWC; whether countries should
vote for or against a return to commercial whaling;
and support for past votes that called for a return
to commercial whaling.
“The evidence is overwhelming,”
said Dr Susan Lieberman, Head of WWF’s Global
Species Programme.
“Governments are ignoring public
opinion and claiming to vote for whaling on behalf
of their citizens. Commercial whaling will not
help alleviate poverty nor help coastal communities.
It doesn’t matter how many times you state it,
it doesn’t make it true.”
In each Pacific country surveyed,
a majority of people were unaware of the IWC,
but many were against their country voting for
a return to commercial whaling than were for it,
and if their country had voted for a return in
the past, they think that it should not have done
so.
In answer to the question “Do
you think your country should vote for or against
a return to commercial whaling?”, the Marshall
Islands rejected returning to whaling by 64%,
Tuvalu by 64%, Kiribati by 47% (14% don’t know),
Palau by 76%, and the Solomon Islands by 72%.
In none of the five Caribbean
countries surveyed, does a majority think their
country should vote for a return to commercial
whaling, nor think their country should have in
the past voted for a return to commercial whaling.
In four of these countries, the majority of people
were aware of the IWC.
In answer to the question “The
representative of your country has in past meetings
of the IWC voted for a return to commercial whaling.
Do you think your country should have voted this
way?” Grenada voted "no" by 33% (37%
don’t know) St Lucia by 50% (17% don’t know) ,
Antigua and Barbuda by 79%, Dominica by 40% (14%
don’t know), and St Kitts and Nevis by 54%.
Japan, through its 20-year pro-whaling
lobbying strategy, is poised to claim “victory”
this year 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.
“The Japanese government has
been actively, and unabashedly, targeting small
island developing states in the Caribbean and
the Pacific, along with West African countries,
to vote in favour of their pro-whaling agenda
for years,” said Gordon Shepherd, Head of Policy
at WWF International. “Our polling shows this
a farce that’s not supported by the countries’
own citizens.”
WWF calls on the governments
of the ten countries surveyed to consider the
needs of their own citizens, and vote for whale
conservation at this year’s IWC meeting.
END NOTES:
• The research in the Pacific
was carried out by Fiji-based Tebbutt Research,
a full service market research company with international
credentials and project experience, combined with
local knowledge and a presence on the ground in
the Pacific. The surveys were conducted by telephone,
using randomly selected numbers from phone books
for each country. Respondents were selected randomly
from the household, and all were adult citizens
of the country they reside in. Interviews were
conducted in four languages – English, Pidgin,
I-Kiribati, and Tuvaluan. All interviews, validation,
quality control, data entry and analysis were
conducted in-house by Tebbutt Research to strict
standards according to ESOMAR guidelines. Some
200 interviews were conducted in each country
(1,000 in total), between 25 May and 6 June 2006.
Using population data from the CIA World Factbook,
the sample size selected gives a maximum statistical
margin of error of less than 7% for each country
at the 95% confidence level.
• The research in the Caribbean
was carried out by Meridian Marketing Support
Services Ltd, an independent research company
based in Trinidad and Tobago. The poll was taken
using a prepared questionnaire between 25 May
and 8 June 2006. Individuals polled were selected
via a random method and using the local telephone
listing as the sampling frame. Individuals were
polled via telephone interviews. In each territory
the margin of error is 4%, with a confidence interval
of 95%. Sample size – 300 persons in each territory.
