When the final gavel came down at the 55th annual International Whaling Commission meeting in Berlin on Thursday, the highly polarized IWC membership found itself on the threshold of a new era. The 57-year-old organization had adopted a landmark whale conservation initiative despite the aggressive efforts of Japan and its allies to push a pro-whaling agenda that practically laughed in the face of the 1986 commercial whaling moratorium.
Passage of the Berlin Initiative, which strengthens the IWC's conservation agenda by forming an official committee to deal with such issues as by-catch and pollution, would seem to settle the question of the IWC's future direction. The organization's course certainly seems clear to Japan, which has not only threatened to withhold its IWC payments, but has also threatened to withdraw from the treaty altogether and form another whaling organization.
For years, The HSUS and other animal-protection organizations have argued that the IWC has evolved well beyond its original intent of preserving whale species only to ensure that future generations could hunt them. Japan, conversely, has continued to argue that conservation has no place in the IWC, which should merely set whale quotas. The island nation has even worked to stock the IWC with its allies to prevent any change in direction against whaling.
"Adoption of the Berlin Initiative serves as a reminder that Japan, Norway, Iceland and other pro-whaling countries are out of step with the majority of conservation-minded nations," noted Patricia Forkan, HSUS executive vice president, who has been attending IWC meetings since 1973. "The initiative should also help attract new countries to the IWC, particularly those conservation-minded nations that have been scared away by all the infighting about whaling."
And there's the rub. Japan continues to entice new members to the IWC in an attempt to influence the agenda of the venerable organization. Membership has swelled to 51, and many of the new arrivals are Japan's allies, who help the country block anti-whaling resolutions.
Case in point: Two proposals for whale sanctuaries, one for the South Pacific and another for the South Atlantic, were defeated when neither could muster the three-quarters majority needed for passage. Anti-whaling forces say the sanctuary proposals, even though they both garnered a majority of votes, failed because Japan has secured a voting bloc that represents more than a quarter of the IWC members.
Yet, Japan's allies still aren't numerous enough to push the country's whaling agenda, only to block the anti-whaling agenda. The island nation's two whale quota proposals, both of which essentially flouted the commercial whaling moratorium, were resoundingly rejected. What's more, IWC commissioners issued a resolution condemning Japan's so-called "scientific" whaling, calling it "an act contrary to the spirit of the moratorium on commercial whaling and to the will of the Commission." (Incidentally, the IWC's Scientific Committee also reviewed Iceland's research whaling proposal, and found it "deficient in almost every respect.")
Japan clearly felt the hostility in the room toward its pro-whaling agenda. It responded by making threats. According to a story in The Japan Times, dated June 21, "Japan may pull out of the International Whaling Commission in response to what it sees as the hijacking of the commission by anti-whaling nations."
The threat, according to the newspaper, was delivered by Japan's chief delegate to the IWC, Minoru Morimoto, at the end of the four-day meeting in Berlin. Even before the meeting adjourned, Morimoto also threatened to withhold Japan's financial contribution to the IWC. The newspaper noted that Japan's contribution accounted for 8.6% of the organization's operational budget, highest among all IWC members.
The High North Alliance News, a Norway-based outlet, also reported that the pro-whaling bloc within the IWC issued a statement that not only condemned the Berlin Initiative, but also threatened to form an alternative organization to manage international whaling.
"We are deeply concerned that adoption of the Berlin Initiative, which establishes a conservation committee, will essentially destroy the already polarized and dysfunctional IWC," the news agency quoted the statement. The statement, signed by 17 pro-whaling nations including Japan, Iceland and Norway, concludes that the initiative "has provoked an increased interest in the examination of alternatives that would provide for the sustainable use of abundant whale resources."
Next year's IWC will be held in Sorrento, Italy, a small coastal town. If the end of the 55th annual meeting is any predictor of future events, the 56th annual meeting could be even more heated.
To read The HSUS's coverage of the 55th annual International Whaling Commission meeting, click on the links below.
