The International Whaling Commission begins a
five-day meeting Monday in Morocco's Atlantic resort of Agadir — arguably its
most important gathering since 1986, when a moratorium on commercial whaling
halted the factory-style slaughter of tens of thousands of animals every year.
A compromise that would suspend the whaling ban has been
drafted by the agency's chairman, but it's an unhappy option for nations that
abhor whaling. The deal would legitimize commercial hunting in exchange for a
drop in the number of whales actually killed by those claiming exemptions to
the ban - Japan, Norway and Iceland.
The proposal, the agency says, would end the wildcat
whaling that still kills up to 2,000 whales a year, including species on the
verge of extinction. Japan's unrestricted whale hunt, allegedly for
"scientific research," currently ends up sending more whale meat to
sushi bars than laboratories.
Since the ban took place, about 33,600 whales have been
killed, according to the Animal Welfare Institute in Washington.
The 88-nation whaling commission also hopes to dispel
what its chairman calls an "atmosphere of confrontation and mistrust"
that has frozen the agency's work for decades, and to reaffirm its relevance as
a regulatory force.
The IWC "is fundamentally broken and must be
fixed," the chief US negotiator, Monica Median, told reporters earlier
this year.
IWC Chairman Cristian Maquieira published his proposal in
April to bring the three whaling nations back under the agency's control by
allowing them to hunt commercially under closely monitored quotas.
Advocates say 5,000 whales will be saved over the 10-year
life of the deal. Opponents question that claim, and say the proposal would
legitimize hunting for profit and throw a lifeline to a dying industry that has
constant confrontations with environmental groups on the world's oceans.
"The points of view differ a lot," Marie-Josee
Jenniskens, head of the Netherlands' delegation, told The Associated Press.
"I wish I could be more optimistic." She said Maquieira's original
compromise was being modified, and a new draft was likely to be unveiled
Monday. Maquieira himself is not attending due to illness, and the convention
will be chaired by his deputy, Anthony Liverpool of Antigua and Barbuda.
Maquieira says his proposal tried to strike "a
delicate balance" that admittedly will satisfy no one.
Under it, Japan would be allowed to hunt in the Antarctic
Whale Sanctuary, officially declared a no-go zone in 1994 but where Japanese
whaling ships haul most of their catch now anyway. The draft says the quotas
would involve a "significant reduction," from today's levels but
leaves open the question whether whale meat and other whale products can be
traded internationally.
Objections to the draft have been swift and firm.
"The Australian government cannot accept this
proposal as it currently stands," Environment Protection Minister Peter
Garrett said. Australia has already launched a complaint against Japanese
whaling at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the UN's highest
court.
The German parliament urged its government to reject the
proposal, saying "we can only guess at how fatal the consequences will be
for marine ecosystems." The United States also has voiced reservations,
especially over the number of whales the three countries will be allowed to
hunt.
Conservationists say the catch quotas must be based on
scientific evaluations of whale populations rather than on recent catches.
"The quotas have more to do with political science
than biological science," said Patrick Ramage of the International Fund
for Animal Welfare.
Ramage is worried that the US is too anxious for a deal,
partly because Washington fears Japan could veto the approved catch by Alaskan
Inuit hunters, which falls under a clause allowing Aboriginal subsistence
whaling.
"There has been decades of steady progress in
conservation. All of that is threatened with reversal by a politically
expedient proposal that some governments are trying to rush through,"
Ramage said.
Several environmental groups said they would favor a deal
only if endangered species are excluded from the hunt, whaling is stopped in
the Antarctic sanctuary, trade in whale products is outlawed and no country is
exempt.
