NZ to try again, but Carter says whale sanctuary will take time

1.30pm

New Zealand will try again next year to set up a South Pacific whale sanctuary although Conservation Minister Chris Carter admits that success in the short-term is unlikely.

The International Whaling Commission meeting in Berlin today voted 24-17 in favour of a sanctuary, but the proposal needed 75 per cent support.

It was the fourth time the issue had gone before the commission and Mr Carter said he and Australian Environment Minister David Kemp gave an assurance their two countries would try again next year.

The vote was similar to last year's, but there was an increase to 20 in the numbers that co-sponsored the proposal and Mr Carter said he was pleasantly surprised about that development.

"It was the most we have had," he said.

"There was incredible cross-section of developed and developing nations."

Among the co-sponsors were the United States, Britain and most other European Union members, India, Brazil, Argentina and South Africa.

However, a core of opposition remained, including the Scandinavian countries, Japan, and a number of small Caribbean and African states.

"The core is growing, because Nicaragua has joined, and the Ivory Coast and Belize have indicated they are going to, and they are pro-whaling," Mr Carter said.

"I have to be honest. While we had 20 co-sponsors and 24 votes, there is a steady erosion of the conservation position at the IWC at the moment."

He said more pro-conservation countries needed to be encouraged to join the 50-strong IWC, although cost was a problem for smaller states.

He believed the number of pro-whaling members in the IWC was not representative of world opinion.

"The vast majority of countries, I think, are pro-conservation, but many of them, like Canada and Greece, are not members of the IWC."

In the South Pacific, Mr Carter said, many states who were not commission members had declared or were in the processing of declaring whale sanctuaries around their islands.

The South Pacific sanctuary proposal was one of two key agenda items for the New Zealand delegation in the German capital.

The other was the creation of a conservation committee to make recommendations about problems facing marine mammals, a plan that was carried yesterday in a sharp shift for the 57-year-old IWC.

"New Zealand had a major win over the conservation committee and held its position on the South Pacific sanctuary," Mr Carter said.

"We were not very optimistic about the sanctuary. I was very nervous that the vote would go down, so I was pleased with the outcome."

- NZPA