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Posté
Samedi 04 Juillet 2009 par Véronique
The 85 member States attending in Funchal, Portugal, the meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) from the 22nd to 26th June 2009 did not reach any agreement "because of fundamental disagreements on the very nature and the aim" of the Commission : neither the "hunting countries" nor the "conservationist countries" were willing to make concessions.
A decision of extension for one more year of the "small working group" in charge since 2008 to negotiate a provisional agreement on 5 years to deal with the most urgent matters, including scientific fisheries. But it appears that it comes down to redefining the role of the IWC. And both sides, hunting and conservationist fundamentally disagree on it. This is very worrying.
Highlighted split between hunting countries and conservationists countries
For many years, the IWC is struck by arguments between hunting countries, which are considering the threats over the great cetaceans as overstated, and the conservationists’ countries which want to maintain the ban on hunting, ban in force since 1986. (See our folder "Endangered species - Whales")
This year, negotiations have failed because of a new proposition from Japan: it wanted starting again a commercial fishery off its national coasts in return for a "gradual" limitation of its "scientific catches" off Antarctic coasts. This proposal has been turned down by the IWC, as well as the request from Greenland for fishing more humpback whales, much protected species, as aboriginal subsistence catching.
Bill Hogarth, from USA, who chairs the International Whaling Commission, does not delude himself: "It is a utopia to consider that Japan, Norway and Iceland are going to give up whaling. Just as it would be unrealistic for these countries to think they might carry on fishing the same number of whales" he said.
Everybody agrees on a solution to be found by 2010 In order to avoid that a number of countries, whose Japan, leave the IWC.
Whale meat does not attract Japanese and Norwegian people that much !
Polls are pointing that Japanese obstinateness to IWC is related to national political preoccupations linked to the general elections to be held at fall.
The real hope lies then in the more and more weak consumption of whale meat by Norwegian and Japanese people. In 2008, the latest would have eaten, on average, 50 grams only per person per year! As a matter of fact, almost 20% of the Japanese people never ate whale meat, according to Greenpeace Japan.
In Norway, whale fishing has been stopped mid June 2009, i.e. at the half of the fishing season, because of a saturated demand, when less than half of the quota of 885 cetaceans had been reached. The 350 Minke whales already caught were enough to satisfy the known demand.
This information would confirm the very recent WWF report saying that Norway and Japan are obliged to subsidize whale fisheries, appearing no more profitable at all.
Even if it is regrettable that economic preoccupations are prevailing on ecological ones, Longitude 181 Nature notes once again that, the consumer power who stops its consumption (to the extend it is not a question of subsistence), is the stronger mean of pressure for whale protection.
Whale watching, the best option
But some hope is also coming from the massive increase, these last 10 years, of whale watching activities around the world.
During the last meeting of the IWC, Australia, great opponent to Japan and Norway, presented the IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare) report showing that 13 million people have been participating In this activity in 119 countries, being worth 2,1 billion US dollars in touristic incomes in Asia, South America, Caribbean, Pacific and in Europe. 3,000 whale watching bodies are nowadays employing close to 13,000 people all over the world.
Longitude 181 Nature is fully agreeing with the Australian Minister for the Environment, Patt Garrett, who has tried in vain to convince the IWC member States that "whales are very much more valuable when alive rather than dead". And that "a responsible practice of whale watching is the more sustainable, the more respectful of the environment, and the most profitable form of "exploitation" of the whales in the XXIth century"
Marie Hélène Cotté
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