Posted on 16-6-2003

Whales Face New Bloodbath
by  Mark Townsendm, The Observer, 15 June 2003

    Hunted to the brink of extinction, their relentless slaughter became the first great symbol of the overexploitation of the earth's resources. Now, for the first time since commercial whaling was banned almost two decades ago, the recovery of the species is threatened by a return to the bloodbath of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

    Talks this week could map out the fate of the world's largest mammal as the credibility of the international agreement that controls whaling faces its sternest test.

    A coalition of pro-whaling nations led by Japan is set to hijack the talks at the International Whaling Commission amid allegations that votes have been bought by bribery.

    Japan and its growing block of supporters - once a tiny minority - could win a clear majority for the first time in the commission's 57-year history.

    Delegates from about 40 countries will vote tomorrow on whether to introduce the most important whaling conservation measure for years. The so-called Berlin Initiative would transform the commission into a body dedicated to safeguarding the whale rather than regulating the whaling industry for which it was originally created.

    Yet already it is doomed. Japan looks likely to muster 50 per cent of the vote needed to block the proposal.

    For Fisheries Minister Elliot Morley, leading the UK delegation, the initiative's defeat could prove a defining point in the future welfare of the mammal. He is braced for the worst. 'It looks decidedly tricky,' he told The Observer.

    The fear is that having seized the moral authority among commission states, the pro-whaling nations will strive to secure 75 per cent of the votes. Such a majority would enable them to overturn the ban on whaling, threatening many species with extinction.

    'At some point we are confident we will overturn the moratorium. It is becoming a reality,' said Joji Morishita, a Japanese delegate.

    Such a reality would represent a profound defeat for the world's conservation movement, which has lavished vast sums on a propaganda battle to outlaw all whaling.

    Despite such concerted campaigning, Japan now counts at least half the 40-plus commission member states as its supporters and that does not include new members such as Nicaragua and Belize, which are reportedly pro-whaling.

    Acrimony between the two camps has been heightened by allegations that Japan, which claims eating whale is an important part of its cultural heritage, is still offering multi-million-pound fisheries aid grants to less wealthy states in return for pro-whaling votes. Figures from Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs reveal the country gave about £70 million in fisheries aid to eight countries last year, which may have persuaded some to back Japan's whaling stance.

    Critics point to St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines, which supported conservation, but performed a U-turn after senior politicians were entertained by the Japanese government.

    Since then, both countries have received more than £13m in aid. It is feared the Japanese have now set their sights on African and Latin American nations.

    Such charges are denied by Tokyo. 'We give aid to a lot of countries, including countries who vote against us on whaling. The smaller nations rely on marine resources for food and even if they received aid from Japan it wouldn't alter their stance,' said a spokesman for Japan's commission delegation.

    The growing influence of Japan on whaling matters has led Morley to call on opponents to join the commission and thwart the pro-whaling block.

    Vassili Papastavrou, whale scientist for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said: 'If the whalers get hold of the convention, they will be able to use it for their own ends.' Such despondency contrasts with the triumphalism that greeted the commission agreement in 1982 to impose a moratorium on commercial whaling.

    Some species, such as the blue whale, last hunted in the 1960s by the Russians, have still not recovered. Other conservation measures likely to be defeated this week include the introduction of huge whale sanctuaries in the Pacific and South Atlantic.

    Another hotly debated point will be Japanese claims that whales are to blame for declining marine stocks because they empty the seas of huge amounts of fish.