Posted on 24-5-2002
Whale
Plans Take Dive
Shimonoseki, Japan/Auckland, New Zealand
May23rd 2002
Proposed management plans for whaling by Japan and Sweden
were rejected by the IWC today.
Japan’s version of the Revised Management Scheme (RMS) that
included the
abolition of the moratorium on commercial whaling and abolition
of the
Southern Ocean and Indian Ocean Whale Sanctuaries was refused,
showing
Japan’s vote buying policy has not been successful. “This
outrageous proposal would at a stroke have abolished all those
hard won
victories by conservation minded countries and environmental
groups at
the IWC victories fought on behalf of the world’s remaining
whales,”
says Sarah Duthie Greenpeace Oceans Campaigner. The alternative
proposal
sponsored by Sweden, the Netherlands, Ireland, Oman, South Africa,
Spain, Switzerland and Finland also failed to gain the three-quarters
majority required under IWC rules to pass.“Management plans
have
never worked in the past and we’ve got no reason to believe
they would
work now,” says Duthie. “Given the uncertainty surrounding the
whale
populations and the myriad environmental hazards they face,
like toxic
pollution and climate change, Greenpeace believes only an outright
ban
on commercial whaling can give whales a chance to recover.”
“Commercial whaling has no place in the 21st century,” said
Duthie.
Note: Sarah Duthie was interviewed by PTV, copies available
from PTV
section
|