Japan wins first pro-whaling vote in two decades

FRIGATE BAY, St. Kitts and Nevis - Japan and other whaling nations today for the first time in more than two decades won support for a motion criticising a global whaling ban, signalling they might finally have the muscle to challenge the moratorium.

The approval of a non-binding pro-whaling declaration by the International Whaling Commission, or IWC, does not immediately threaten a 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling, which saved the Earth's largest creatures from extinction and which Japan would like to overturn.

But in backing by 33 votes to 32 a statement that said the whaling ban was no longer valid, whales were responsible for depleting fish stocks and non-governmental and environmental organizations were a "threat," the IWC boosted Japan's hopes of chipping away at the ban. There was one abstention.

"This is a huge disaster," said Kitty Block of Humane Society International shortly after the vote at the annual June 16-20 meeting of the commission in the Caribbean island state of St. Kitts and Nevis.

"This is now going to be their propaganda."

New Zealand's Conservation Minister, Chris Carter, told AP news agency the vote a hollow victory that "will ultimately lead to the defeat of Japan's pro-whaling ambitions."

"It shined the window of light for the world to see what's been going on in the IWC. Japan had a long, expensive campaign to achieve a whaling majority, which they got today," Carter added, referring to accusations that Japan has bought votes by financing fisheries in developing countries.

Japan has abided by the moratorium on commercial whaling since it came into force two decades ago, but, along with Iceland, uses a legal loophole to conduct scientific whaling. Norway is the only country that ignores the ban.

More than 25,000 whales have been hunted and killed since the moratorium.

Even so, Japan and its allies have sought to return the IWC to its 1946 roots as an organisation that regulates whaling, and they have encouraged new pro-whaling nations to join the commission in the hope of wresting control from protectionists. They would need 75 per cent of votes in the IWC to actually end the moratorium.

"This is historic. For the first time in more than two decades the Whaling Commission expresses support for commercial whaling," said Rune Frovik, secretary of Norwegian pro-whaling lobby the High North Alliance.

Japan, which says some whale species have recovered enough to be hunted in a sustainable way, had been expected to secure a majority in St. Kitts and Nevis -- its first majority in the body since the ban was approved.

But it was defeated in three far more substantial votes that preceded today's approval of the so-called St. Kitts and Nevis declaration.

Sue Lieberman, director of the global species program at WWF International, said the fact that a majority of IWC members had adopted language anti-whaling activists consider scientifically invalid, such as the claim that whales eat large quantities of sought-after fish, was significant but ultimately not that consequential.

"What is more important than that is this does show that Japan's recruitment drive has finally succeeded. It should be a wake-up call," Lieberman said.

"No they did not win when it really counted. And no, this isn't going to change anything. This is purely inflammatory and will not help resolve what we agree is a serious impasse (in the IWC)."

- REUTERS