US to seek reversal of IWC whale hunt decision
Date: 07-Jun-02
Country: JAPAN
Author: Elaine Lies
The United States and Russia were infuriated by the IWC's decision at its meeting in the southwestern Japanese city of Shimonoseki last month not to renew permits for their native peoples to hunt bowhead whales.
It was the first such move in the group's 56-year history, reflecting a bitter power struggle between conservationists and those wanting to hunt whales.
"By the end of the year, the United States will cooperate with other countries and make efforts to reverse the results of Shimonoseki," said Kevin Maher, Minister-Counselor for Environment, Science and Technology at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo.
What form this takes will be decided pending discussions in Washington, he told a news briefing, although one option is an extraordinary meeting of the IWC later this year.
"We hope for the cooperation of Japan as well," he said.
The U.S. State Department, and many delegates at the meeting in Shimonoseki from May 20 to 24, singled out Japan for criticism, saying it blocked renewal of the permits to press its own demand that it be allowed to hunt 50 minke whales.
The United States is a key player in the anti-whaling camp but was keen to get renewed approval for its Alaskan Inuit people to hunt 56 bowhead whales a year, a practice that has been allowed in the past to meet what are termed cultural and subsistence needs.
The Russian native peoples had applied to hunt five bowheads a year.
GIVE US WHALES
Japan in turn accused the United States of hypocrisy on the issue, particularly since Tokyo maintains that bowheads are endangered.
It said that taking the 50 minkes would help meet the needs of four whaling communities along Japan's coast that are struggling to maintain a proud, generations-old tradition.
Japan stopped commercial whaling in 1986 in line with an IWC moratorium but began what it calls scientific research whaling the following year.
Maher said he hoped Japan would not stand in the way of efforts to reverse the decision.
A Japanese fisheries official, though, said there has been no change in Japan's views.
"We support the needs of indigenous peoples, but we are asking for consistency in science to manage whale resources," said Joji Morishita at the Fisheries Agency.
"As far as Japan is concerned, our basic stance is the same."
The IWC spent so much time feuding over the quota issue during its five-day meeting that it had to leave crucial issues untouched, including debate over Japan's controversial expanded whaling programme.
Even long-term IWC hands said they had never seen a meeting where so little was accomplished and divisions ran so deep, giving rise to fears about its future survival.