DemocratLupis
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 2, 2007
- Messages
- 129
US, Japan seek support for whale hunting by indigenous groups by P. Parameswaran
Sun May 27, 6:22 AM ET
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AFP) - The United States and Japan may be on opposite sides of the whaling debate but they have a common aim -- gaining support for whale hunting by their indigenous and coastal communities.
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Ahead of annual talks of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) starting in Anchorage this week, the United States, a strong opponent of commercial whaling, is nevertheless wooing members of the polarized 75-nation body to maintain bowhead whale hunting quotas for native Alaskan communities.
On the other hand, Japan, spearheading the pro-whaling group, is making a feverish pitch to allow its traditional coastal communities to catch an unspecified number of Minke whales under the same IWC rules that permit the Inupia and Yup'ik peoples of Alaska to hunt the giant creatures.
Even though the IWC, which regulates whaling and is in charge of conservation of the mammals, imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986, it has a policy of allowing people in countries such as the United States, Russia and Greenland to hunt otherwise protected whales to satisfy longstanding cultural and subsistence needs.
Japan has been campaigning for 20 years for so-called emergency relief quotas for four of its small whaling towns but its request has been rejected by the IWC, which argues that such an allocation would be a "commercial" quota disallowed under the moratorium.
Japan is going to try again this year and the move, experts say, could be a key focus of the meeting. Japan is already under fire from conservationists for exploiting a loophole in the moratorium, which allows killing of whales for "scientific research."
The richest Asian nation may even use its bargaining power over the United States' regarding aboriginal subsistence whaling quotas to gain votes to back its own demands.
For its request for whale hunting quotas for native communities to be maintained, Washington needs the support of three quarters of the IWC members. Japan and its allies hold enough votes to block such approval.
"We expect the same treatment to be given to any proposal from Japan for a quota for our traditional coastal whaling communities, where the whales would be caught locally, processed locally, distributed locally and consumed locally," Joji Mori****a, alternate IWC commissioner for Japan, told AFP.
"People need to ask themselves the question: does it matter whether a whale is hunted under the US's so-called Aboriginal Subsistence, or Iceland or Norway's commercial whaling or Japan's traditional coastal whaling?"
"Of course not. What is of the utmost importance is that the practice is sustainable. And it is," Mori****a said.
Japan has denied that it would block the US request to maintain its quota but experts say they are not sure whether its allies will toe the line. In 2002, a Japanese-led coalition nixed the US quota but later backed down.
Last year, Japan and other pro-whaling nations, notably Iceland and Norway, won a razor-thin 33-32 victory, passing a symbolic resolution saying the whaling moratorium was no longer necessary.
Japan, in recent years, supported continuation of subsistence hunting in exchange for the United States showing support in principle for Japan's commercial coastal whaling program.
William Hogarth, the US commissioner to the IWC, is reportedly wooing support particularly from Caribbean countries that are allied to Japan on the issue.
"Under the current international balance of interests, whaling would surely continue, at least in the short term," Hogarth said in a report circulated here.
"So any newly negotiated instrument would have to accommodate that fact," he said. This was apparently a response to calls to shut down the IWC following its failure to develop an effective whaling management scheme.
Sun May 27, 6:22 AM ET
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AFP) - The United States and Japan may be on opposite sides of the whaling debate but they have a common aim -- gaining support for whale hunting by their indigenous and coastal communities.
ADVERTISEMENT
Ahead of annual talks of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) starting in Anchorage this week, the United States, a strong opponent of commercial whaling, is nevertheless wooing members of the polarized 75-nation body to maintain bowhead whale hunting quotas for native Alaskan communities.
On the other hand, Japan, spearheading the pro-whaling group, is making a feverish pitch to allow its traditional coastal communities to catch an unspecified number of Minke whales under the same IWC rules that permit the Inupia and Yup'ik peoples of Alaska to hunt the giant creatures.
Even though the IWC, which regulates whaling and is in charge of conservation of the mammals, imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986, it has a policy of allowing people in countries such as the United States, Russia and Greenland to hunt otherwise protected whales to satisfy longstanding cultural and subsistence needs.
Japan has been campaigning for 20 years for so-called emergency relief quotas for four of its small whaling towns but its request has been rejected by the IWC, which argues that such an allocation would be a "commercial" quota disallowed under the moratorium.
Japan is going to try again this year and the move, experts say, could be a key focus of the meeting. Japan is already under fire from conservationists for exploiting a loophole in the moratorium, which allows killing of whales for "scientific research."
The richest Asian nation may even use its bargaining power over the United States' regarding aboriginal subsistence whaling quotas to gain votes to back its own demands.
For its request for whale hunting quotas for native communities to be maintained, Washington needs the support of three quarters of the IWC members. Japan and its allies hold enough votes to block such approval.
"We expect the same treatment to be given to any proposal from Japan for a quota for our traditional coastal whaling communities, where the whales would be caught locally, processed locally, distributed locally and consumed locally," Joji Mori****a, alternate IWC commissioner for Japan, told AFP.
"People need to ask themselves the question: does it matter whether a whale is hunted under the US's so-called Aboriginal Subsistence, or Iceland or Norway's commercial whaling or Japan's traditional coastal whaling?"
"Of course not. What is of the utmost importance is that the practice is sustainable. And it is," Mori****a said.
Japan has denied that it would block the US request to maintain its quota but experts say they are not sure whether its allies will toe the line. In 2002, a Japanese-led coalition nixed the US quota but later backed down.
Last year, Japan and other pro-whaling nations, notably Iceland and Norway, won a razor-thin 33-32 victory, passing a symbolic resolution saying the whaling moratorium was no longer necessary.
Japan, in recent years, supported continuation of subsistence hunting in exchange for the United States showing support in principle for Japan's commercial coastal whaling program.
William Hogarth, the US commissioner to the IWC, is reportedly wooing support particularly from Caribbean countries that are allied to Japan on the issue.
"Under the current international balance of interests, whaling would surely continue, at least in the short term," Hogarth said in a report circulated here.
"So any newly negotiated instrument would have to accommodate that fact," he said. This was apparently a response to calls to shut down the IWC following its failure to develop an effective whaling management scheme.
