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Whaling ban faces stiff test at Caribbean meeting
Topic Started: Jun 13 2006, 11:29 AM (59 Views)
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Whaling ban faces stiff test at Caribbean meeting
Reuters
Jun 12, 2006 — By Michael Christie

MIAMI (Reuters) - An international whaling group this week is expected to try to chip away at a moratorium on commercial whaling that environmentalists say has saved the Earth's largest creatures from extinction.

For the first time since whale-hunting was banned in 1986, pro-whaling nations led by Japan expect to have a majority at the International Whaling Commission's annual meeting in the Caribbean island state of St. Kitts and Nevis from June 16-20.

Last year, Japan, Norway, Iceland and their allies failed to attain a majority only because some members showed up late or had failed pay their dues.

Even with a majority, they will not be able to end the hunting moratorium because that would require 75 percent of votes at the 70-member IWC.

But environmentalists say the whaling nations could take conservation off the IWC agenda, impose secret balloting, expel non-governmental organizations, shelve proposals to establish new sanctuaries and recommend a resumption in the trade in minke whales.

All those steps could turn the IWC back into an agency that manages whale hunting, rather than one that prohibits it.

"We are approaching the IWC this year in terms of the pro-conservation camp with a great deal of apprehension," said Joth Singh, director of wildlife and habitat protection at the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

The commission was founded in 1946 to regulate whaling. But it became more focused on conservation as the giant mammals were driven to the edge of extinction. Australia and South Africa lead the anti-whaling lobby, arguing that whale-watching is more lucrative than killing them.

Read full article here:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2066893
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Japanese no longer like whale meat -- anti-whalers
13 Jun 2006
By George Nishiyama

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/T179733.htm

TOKYO, June 13 (Reuters) - The Japanese public no longer likes eating whale meat and Tokyo's argument that whaling should be maintained to meet consumer demand is a fabrication, a conservationist group said on Tuesday.

Reflecting falling demand, domestic stockpiles of whale meat have been increasing, said the Tokyo-based Dolphin & Whale Action Network in a report written by freelance journalist Junko Sakuma.

"The Fisheries Agency continues to carry out whaling based on a fictitious public opinion," Sakuma told a news conference, showing data released by the agency pointing to an increase in stockpiles of whale meat.

"Many people think the Japanese like whale meat and therefore continue whaling. That's not true."

Japan abandoned commercial whaling in 1986 in line with an international ban, but began research whaling the next year and has campaigned for a return to limited commercial whaling.

At the coming meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), Tokyo plans to call for a new group for nations that support commercial whaling in a bid to end the 20-year-old ban.

Pro-whaling nations could win a slim majority at the June 16-20 IWC meeting in the Caribbean island nation of St Kitts and Nevis, but will still fall short of the three-quarters support needed to end the moratorium.

Japan insists that eating whale is a cultural tradition that is still very much alive due to consumer demand for the sea mammal's meat.

The Fisheries Agency acknowledged that stockpiles had indeed risen recently, but attributed this to the increase in the amount of whales caught, not to falling demand.

"When reports about rising stockpiles surfaced, we got complaint calls from consumers -- 'where can I buy them, I can't find them in my neighbourhood supermarket'," said Hideki Moronuki, chief of the agency's whaling section.

"There is plenty of potential demand."

Much of the meat from Japan's whaling ends up on the tables of gourmet restaurants, and ordinary Japanese rarely come across a whale meat dish.

In a bid to whet an appetite for whale among younger consumers, a new Japanese company was set up in May to expand sales of the meat to include school lunches and some family-oriented restaurant chains.

"Until now, there were people who wanted to eat whale meat but could not buy it," Moronuki said.

Japan blames whales for declining fish catches and says it supports protection of endangered species but argues that others, such as the minke, are numerous enough to be hunted within limits.

Japan's take of whale on its Antarctic hunt earlier this year nearly doubled to 850 minke whales. Its vessels also brought back, for the first time, 10 fin whales -- which conservationists say are endangered.
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