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
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