Setback for pro-whaling nations

2005-06-20 08:44

Ulsan, South Korea - Pro-whaling countries failed to muster a majority on Monday at the annual whaling commission meeting, in a setback for their hopes to control its agenda and eventually overturn a nearly two-decade ban on commercial whale hunts.

A Japanese proposal to delete discussion of whale sanctuaries from the five-day meeting's agenda was voted down 29-28 in what was seen as a test of whether whaling advocates have built a majority among the 66 members of the International Whaling Commission.

A majority would give pro-whaling countries broad authority to set the commission's agenda. However, it would still fall far short of the three-fourth's vote required to overturn the moratorium on commercial whaling.

The Cambridge, England-based commission that regulates whaling banned commercial hunts in 1986, handing environmentalists a major victory in protecting species that were near extinction after centuries of whaling.

Norway holds the world's only commercial whaling season in defiance of the ban. Japan kills whales for what it describes as scientific research, but sells the meat. Japan, Norway and other nations this year are expected to take more than 1 550 whales.

New Zealand, Australia and conservationist groups such as Greenpeace oppose any expansion of whaling.

Japan is against new whale sanctuaries and proposed that this issue - and others opposed by pro-whaling countries - be pushed off the agenda at the opening of the commission's annual general assembly in South Korea.

The commission voted 29-29 to end debate on the Japanese motion, prompting IWC Commissioner Henrik Fischer of Denmark to rule that the agenda was to be adopted as is.

Defeat for Japan

"That was a defeat for Japan," said New Zealand Conservation Minister Chris Carter.

Joji Morishita, Japan's chief negotiator on whaling issues, said there were remaining questions about whether the agenda was properly adopted, adding that his country was putting up a "good fight".

A simple majority of pro-whaling nations would be able to pass resolutions favouring their stance, including ones that express support for Japan's research program or voice backing for the resumption of limited kills.

The next vote at the meeting was likely to be on whether to adopt secret ballots, a move the pro-whaling countries favour.

The United States earlier this month urged against any expansion in what Tokyo calls its research hunt, with its research agency National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration saying any increase in the "number or type of whales killed and marketed under the guise of science is unacceptable".

Last year's whaling panel meeting ended with a resolution for Japan to halt its research programme. That generated angry calls in Tokyo for the country to retaliate by quitting the group, or at least withhold funding.

"More and more people are starting to say 'Why do you stay in the IWC?,"' Japanese ruling party lawmaker Yoshimasa Hayashi, a member of Japan's 82-member delegation to the conference, told reporters just before this year's meeting began.

On the net:

International Whaling Commission

Greenpeace

- AP