The International Whaling Commission’s annual meeting wound up on Friday having passed toothless resolutions urging Japan to curb its hunt and with members saying the body desperately needed an overhaul.
In their last major vote, members agreed to meet and consider rules governing commercial whaling, with a view to ending the 19-year-old ban by imposing strict regulations to monitor catches and assure compliance.
The main topic during a week of debates in Ulsan, a former whaling port in the southeast of the Korean peninsula, was Japan’s scientific whaling program, which critics say is a disguised commercial hunt for meat for upscale eateries.
Japan announced plans on Monday to increase its annual catch of minke whales to about 900 and eventually hunt 50 fin and humpback whales a year — two types of whales conservationists say whose survival is threatened.
Under a commission exemption, pro-whaling states such as Japan are allowed to conduct scientific whaling. Japan says its program yields valuable data on feeding habits, for example.
Japan lost on a proposal to resume commercial whaling under rules it advocates. It also lost a vote to allow its northern Pacific coastal communities to catch 150 minke years and it was chastised for its plans to double its scientific catches.
Even from the outset of the meeting, an outright end to the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling was never likely, given the need for 75 percent of votes to make any major policy change.
'Cold War' deadlock
The 66-member commission, founded in 1946 to regulate whaling and protect the giant mammals, is nearly evenly divided between pro-whaling and anti-whaling states.
Despite the divide, there was a consensus on the need for major reform of the commission, or it could become as endangered as some of the species of whales it is trying to protect.
“The IWC resembles the Cold War. We have two blocs that are locked into an ideological struggle, with conservation on one hand and whaling on the other,” said Chris Carter, New Zealand’s conservation minister.
“We have reached a point here where this has become an absolute farce, a joke,” Carter said.
Japan, which often locks horns with anti-whaling states such as New Zealand and Australia, agreed on the need for reform. Its officials have also said Tokyo may consider leaving the commission, a prospect raised in the past, too.
“The de-politicization and de-emotionalization of this organization is very important,” said Joji Morishita, a senior Japanese Fisheries Agency official. “I would like to see domestic politics being taken out of this meeting and spend more time talking about management.”
Strict rules for whaling?
Some neutral nations say the way forward may be a “revised management scheme” that would allow commercial whaling to resume, but only under strict rules.
One proposal calls for international monitors to be placed on whaling fleets and for DNA testing of all whales caught to make sure that what ends up for sale is whale meat has been caught within the rules. It also urges an end to lethal scientific whaling.
The United States, which is seen as a moderating force in the organization, has pushed for such a scheme. It also understands the frustration of the whaling states.
“This has been moving at glacial speed,” said Rolland Schmitten, the U.S. commissioner. “And that has been frustrating whaling nations that would like to get that process finished so they can begin the whale hunt.”
