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| A beluga whale. |
By Bernard Unti
A surprising collegiality and restraint characterized the first day of business at the 59th meeting of the International Whaling Conference in Anchorage—which took up aboriginal sustenance whaling and an uneventful discussion of humane killing methods.
Behind the scenes, however, the battle lines were forming for today's discussions, the first of which will focus on aboriginal subsistence whaling quotas. Barring an eleventh hour agreement to submit the quotas together as a "bundle," each will be considered separately. This raises the possibility that factions within the anti-whaling bloc could scuttle one or all of the four aboriginal whaling proposals coming up for consideration.
The second focus of the day will be a resolution directed at CITES, underscoring the importance and validity of the IWC's standing moratorium against commercial whaling, and stressing the IWC's status as the preeminent authority over whaling worldwide. The resolution was framed in anticipation of a move by Japan to push the whaling issue onto the agenda of CITES, which will meet just days from now in The Hague.
Majority Shifts to Anti-Whaling Nations
By the time U.S. Commissioner William Hogarth officially opened the meeting at 10.am., the votes had already been counted. This was evident from statements advanced at the outset by the delegates of Japan and Norway, obviously aware that the simple majority would return to the anti-whaling bloc this year.
Rather than contest the meeting agenda, Japan's lead delegate Joji Morishita said that his country preferred to emphasize its commitment to "normalization" (a longstanding proposal to strip away the protectionist mandate of the IWC) and a new "politics of civility." Mr. Morishita's employer, the Japanese Fisheries Agency, has been sounding this latter note with special emphasis since February 2007, when it sponsored a conference devoted to normalization.
Norway had previously expressed its intention to challenge the inclusion of cetacean health issues and whale watching as suitable topics for the agenda, but its lead delegate followed Morishita's statement with one saying that Norway too would decline to raise agenda-related objections.
The actual country tally, boosted by the inclusion of a handful of new or returning nations that disapprove of whaling, will be today's first order of business.
U.S. Delegation Pushes for Bowhead Quota
In opening remarks to the delegates, U.S. Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) urged approval of the U.S. bowhead quota. Stevens emphasized that subsistence whaling was the fundamental basis of Native Alaskan culture, and suggested that the survival of Alaska's native peoples was "tied to the survival of arctic bowhead whales.
Stevens was not alone in his single-mindedness. The U.S. delegation was clearly busy behind the scenes in Anchorage, especially in pressing the conservation-oriented Latin American bloc not to interfere with the bundling strategy being applied to the aboriginal subsistence whaling quotas.
This intense effort to secure the bowhead quota comes just weeks before the planned opening of 73 million acres of ocean waters off of the coast of Alaska to gas and oil exploration and extraction. Spokesmen for Alaska's Inupiaq people assert that the proposed plan, backed by the U.S. Department of the Interior, directly threatens subsistence whaling.
Debate over Humane Killing Methods
A highly spirited afternoon session focused on the report on Whale Killing Methods and Associated Welfare Issues. The United Kingdom's contemplated resolution on humane killing did not advance, due to the reluctance of the U.S. and Russia to have it apply to aboriginal methods, and the sponsor's unwillingness to countenance an exemption. The United Kingdom took the lead in floor discussion, with Commissioner Richard Cowen lamenting the assembled nations' lack of interest in humane killing methods, and especially the failure of many countries to provide data concerning animals struck and lost.
A handful of nations from Europe and Latin America signaled their desire for better and more detailed information on this subject, and the United Kingdom read a strong supporting statement from Prime Minister Tony Blair into the record.
While Japan was not specifically identified as non-cooperative, Morishita responded with a review of progress whaling countries had made in killing methods and time-to-death rates, and a polite assurance that his nation was not complacent in its efforts.
Commissioner Hogarth personally addressed the problems of disentanglement and ship strikes, securing the commitment of Norway and Australia to lead a working group on the subject.
In challenges that were friendly but firm, both Australia and New Zealand pressed Japan to renounce its stated intention to commence hunting humpback whales in the Southern Ocean Protected Sanctuary.
Few in attendance could remember a less contentious day at the IWC. But few expect the second day to follow suit.
Bernard Unti, senior policy adviser and special assistant to the president, received his doctorate in U.S. history in 2002 from American University. His book, "Protecting All Animals: A Fifty-Year History of The Humane Society of the United States," is available from Humane Society Press.
