Japan lost a crucial vote Friday at a meeting of the International Whaling Commission that was a setback in its long-term drive to overturn a two-decade-old international ban on whaling.
Japan and other pro-whaling countries failed to stop the group from discussing the fate of dolphins, porpoises and small whales, which are not covered by the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling but which conservationists say are as threatened as the great whales.
The 32-30 vote against a proposal to remove so-called small cetaceans from the IWC’s agenda at a gathering on the Caribbean island state of St Kitts and Nevis was seen as a bellwether of the balance of power at the agency.
Environmental groups and anti-whaling nations had feared that Tokyo might finally have been in a position to start challenging the two-decade-old ban, which is credited by all sides with saving great whales from extinction.
“It’s a big vote for small cetaceans,” said Patrick Ramage of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
“It’s not the big vote of the day in terms of signaling where this forum is headed,” Ramage said, adding that a pending vote on adopting secret ballots within the IWC would be the decisive indicator of which side held the upper hand.
Japan and other whaling nations like Norway and Iceland have fought since 1974 to convince the IWC that it should limit its conservationist efforts to large whales, and stop discussing the fate of dolphins and porpoises, which it hunts in large numbers in its coastal waters primarily for food and other products.
Japan has abided by the moratorium on commercial whaling but uses a loophole that allows for scientific whaling. Its fleets brought back 850 minke whales from Antarctic waters last season and 10 fin whales, and it plans to star hunting humpbacks.
Iceland also conducts scientific whaling while Norway, the only nation to defy the international ban, has set its hunters a quota this year of 1,052 minke whales, a small species whose meat is eaten as steaks.
Regulate or conserve?
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.
Japan stopped commercial whaling when the ban came into force but a year later started using a loophole that allowed some whale hunting for “scientific research.” Critics say the meat ends up in gourmet restaurants and that Japan has never published its research in peer-reviewed journals.
The whaling nations say whale hunting is a cherished part of their cultures. They say minke whales -- a small species eaten as steaks, hamburgers or as sushi -- are plentiful.
Japan also blames whales for depleting fish stocks, a charge environmentalists liken to blaming woodpeckers for deforestation.
Whaling strategy
Japan intends to propose at the IWC the establishment of a new group of nations that support commercial whaling, and to use it to reform the fractious organization, officials said.
“If things go on like this, the raison d’etre of the IWC as a whaling management organization disappears,” Hideki Moronuki, head of the whaling section at Japan’s Fisheries Agency, said recently.
Norwegian Whaling Commissioner Karsten Klepsvik said a simple majority at the IWC would be enough to request the U.N.’s Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species to lift a ban on trade in minke whales.
A pro-whaling majority could also order the IWC to revive moribund research into assessing quotas and catch rules.
Japan will open the meeting with a condemnation of efforts by Greenpeace to shadow and harass Japan’s whaling fleet.
The environmental group may lose its observer status at the IWC, said Greenpeace International spokesman Mike Townsley.
“A simple majority is not the end of the story,” he said. ”The IWC may be flawed but its commercial moratorium and its sanctuaries saved the lives of tens of thousands of whales and protected whole species. That’s too big a prize to give up.”