Whalers fail to harpoon conservation at the International Whaling Commission

During the first vote on the opening day of the Conference, Japan moved called to have any reference for a discussion on conservation of small cetaceans (dolphins and porpoises) to be struck from the agenda. The motion was defeated 32 votes to 30. The second and deciding vote on Japan’s call for secret ballots was defeated by 33 votes to 30.

This means the whalers have stumbled in their bid to take over the IWC.

For years Japan has been trying overturn the 1986 IWC moratorium on commercial whaling. It has been accused of buying votes in exchange for foreign aid for fisheries given to many countries who they have encouraged to become IWC members and who supported the pro-whaling position. Having failed to win the majority at last years meeting, one of the Japanese delegation made their intentions clear: “The reversal of history, the turning point is soon to come.” (2) “Whaling history may not have been rewritten this year but it was to close for comfort. The anti-whaling countries must see this as a wake-up call and add action to their rhetoric about protecting whales. This year Greenpeace will once again challenge the whalers on the high seas, the question is what are the anti-whaling countries prepared to do?” said Shane Rattenbury, head of the Greenpeace International Oceans Campaign.

With a simple majority at the Commission, Japan would not have been able to overturn the commercial moratorium on whaling but it could have wreaked havoc with the IWC’s measure to protect whales. It could have had Greenpeace expelled from the IWC, instigated secret ballots, forced a resolution endorsing its “scientific” whaling programme and called for on the Convention for the Trade in endangered Species (CITES) to lift its ban on the trade in minke whales.

This year all of the private companies behind the Japan’s so-called scientific whaling pulled out claiming that there is no profit to be made from whaling and that too few Japanese people are interested in eating whale meat. (3) In response, the Fisheries Agency of Japan has set up its own company to try and sell the ‘chopped and boxed’ by-products of its science to schools, hospitals and restaurants.

Despite the tensions at the IWC it is clear that the Fisheries Agency of Japan do not enjoy the support of the Japanese people. In a new poll commissioned by Greenpeace from the Nippon research Center, 77% of respondents said they did not support whaling on the high seas, this means they do not support the so-called scientific research programme in either the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary or the North Pacific. (4) "It is clear that the people of Japan do not support their Fisheries Agency's drive to bring about a return to commercial whaling. The people of Japan have no appetite for the Fisheries Agency of Japan’s sushi science,” said Rattenbury. “The whale hunt is bankrupt on all counts: politically, financially, morally, ecologically and scientifically. For twenty years the Government of Japan has kept the whaling fleet on life support under the guise of science, its time to face the fact that the whaling industry is dead in the water. It is time to stop the hunt,” concluded Rattenbury.