Page 49 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #11
P. 49

WILDNEWS                                                                                                             By   B

                                                                                                                                       JAMES FAIR, STUART
                                                                                                                                       BLACKMAN, SIMON
                                                                                                                                       BIRCH, KENNY TAYLOR,
                                                                                                                                       CLAIRE VAUGHAN AND
                                                                                                                                       PAUL LOOMFIELD



                                                                                           T
                      KEEPING             YOU        UP     TO     DATE        WITH HE               BIG      NATURE             STORIES




                                                                                                                                  Japanese whaling ships
                                                                                                                              (below) kill Antarctic minke
                                                                                                                                  whales (pictured) in the
                                                                                                                                   Southern Ocean under
                                                                                                                              their scientific programme.











































                WHALING
                Planstoreturntocommercialwhalingthwarted



                Japan’s proposals to introduce whaling quotas have been opposed by the IWC.


                     ations and conservation groups            been designed and bought forward with           falls under the UN Law of the Sea, and it
                N opposed to whaling have been                 the intent, and in the clear knowledge,         would definitely not be able to whale in
                successful in defeating Japanese               that it will fail,” he said.                    the Southern Ocean,” she says.
                proposals aimed at re-opening                    Though the IWC has had a                        For conservation groups, another
                commercial hunting of whales.                  moratorium on commercial whaling                positive development was the adoption
                  At a meeting of the International            since 1986, Japan hunts under what it           of the Florianópolis Declaration,
                Whaling Commission (IWC) in                    calls a scientific whaling programme.            which confirmed the commission’s
         Minke: Jan Vermeer/Minden/FLPA; whaling ship: Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert/Alamy
                September, Japan’s ‘Way Forward’               There is some speculation that Japan is         role in restoring whale populations to
                initiative was voted down by 41 to 27.         trying to manufacture a situation where         pre-industrial levels. However, as the
                Opponents of the package of measures,          it can legitimately leave                       EIA pointed out before the meeting,
                which included the creation of a               the IWC. However,                               commercial whaling continues in
                sustainable whaling committee to set           Clare Perry, senior                               all but name – Japan, Iceland and
                quotas, say they were confused by Japan’s      campaigner for the                                    Norway together have taken more
                motives for initiating the vote.               Environmental                                           than 38,000 whales in total
                  The proposal was “stark and                  Investigation                                            since the moratorium came
                uncompromising in its ambition”,               Agency (EIA),                                             into effect. J Fair
                according to Australia’s commissioner to       says this doesn’t
                the IWC, Nick Gales, speaking before the       make sense.                                                FIND OUT MORE
                vote took place. “It is hard to avoid the      “If Japan leaves                                          InternationalWhaling Commission:
                difficult conclusion that the proposal has      the IWC, it then                                          https://iwc.int/home






            November 2018                                                                                                                  BBC Wildlife   49
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