WASHINGTON - The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS)
announced today that it has filed a petition asking the
Interior Department to certify that Japan is diminishing the
effectiveness of an international program to protect endangered
and threatened species by trading in whale meat.
The HSUS sent a petition to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt
today urging him to certify Japan under the provisions of the
Pelly Amendment, a law that allows the President to impose
trade sanctions against a country that is diminishing the
effectiveness of an international program to protect endangered
and threatened species.
By law, the President was required to respond by Monday,
November 13, to an earlier Commerce Department Pelly
certification asking him to pursue sanctions against the
Japanese government after its fleets hunted and killed five
endangered sperm whales, 43 Bryde's whales, and 40 minke whales
this year in clear violation of International Whaling
Commission (IWC) recommendations. As of close of business
Tuesday, November 14, the President had not responded to the
Commerce petition.
"President Clinton has forced our hand," said HSUS Executive
Vice President Patricia Forkan. "Japan is openly daring the
United States and the international community to stop it. In
the short run, we believe that trade sanctions by the United
States may be the only way of stopping Japan from killing these
three whale species. In the long run, sanctions may be the only
way of stopping Japan and its allies from re-opening the
world's oceans to full-scale commercial whaling."
Although there has been a moratorium on commercial whaling
in effect since 1986, Japan has continued to whale by
exploiting an unintended loophole in IWC regulations that
allows nations to self-issue special permits to kill select
whale species for "scientific purposes." As part of its
"scientific" whaling program, Japan has killed up to 540 minke
whales annually. Independent DNA analysis of whale meat in the
Japanese market indicate that many species, in addition to the
minkes caught under special permit, are actually being sold as
luxury food items. These include blue, humpback and sperm
whales.
Japan, often in concert with Norway, another whaling nation,
has sought to overturn the international moratorium since its
inception. In recent years, it has admitted to checkbook
diplomacy, using its economic clout to buy the votes of
smaller, poorer nations in an attempt to overturn the IWC
whaling ban.
Unlike the Commerce certification, which focused on
violations of the IWC, the HSUS petition centers on Japanese
actions as they affect the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the
international agreement that governs trade in endangered
species. The petition asks the Secretary of the Interior to
certify that Japan is engaging in trade "diminishing the
effectiveness" of CITES.
But recent history gives little cause for optimism.
"The United States has a history of invoking Pelly and then
refusing to enforce it with sanctions," said Forkan.
Although the U.S. has issued certifications on several
occasions during the past decade, she notes, only once were
sanctions actually applied. In 1993, the Department of Interior
certified China and Taiwan because their trade in rhinoceros
horn and tiger products was deemed to diminish the
effectiveness of CITES. Trade sanctions were imposed on
Taiwan.
"We are gravely concerned by President Clinton's lack of
response," Forkan said. "The world faces a critical juncture at
this moment, one that may decide the fate, the very survival,
of the world's whale populations. If the United States backs
down now, commercial whaling may again become widespread and
the threat of extinction becomes very real."
