Countries are working to undermine bans on commercial whaling | whales
A 40-year-old ban on commercial whaling is at risk after “misleading” resolutions were presented at a meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in Portorož, Slovenia.
Organizations for the protection of wild animals OceanCare and Humane Society International said proposals by pro-whaling nations, including Antigua and Barbuda, could reverse the progress made by the IWC.
Antigua and Barbuda has tabled a resolution seeking to reopen formal discussions on commercial whaling. It also co-sponsored another resolution with Cambodia, Guinea and Gambia, arguing that fishing could contribute to food security and alleviate poverty. Deputies will probably vote on the resolutions on Tuesday.
Nicolas Entrup, director of international relations at OceanCare, dismissed the concept of sustainable whaling as “ridiculous”. If adopted, Antigua and Barbuda’s resolutions, he said, would “reverse” the progress made in 2018 towards a more conservation-focused IWC.
“Instead of wasting valuable time on decades-old debates about fictitious scenarios like ‘sustainable whaling’ and bogus food security solutions, the IWC should urgently address the real pressing issues: climate change and plastic pollution,” Entrup said. .
The IWC is at the last meeting of its 88 member states in Brazil in 2018 rejected Japan’s proposal to lift the ban on commercial whaling, which Tokyo said could be done sustainably. The IWC has also reaffirmed its role as a conservation-focused organization, recognizing that threats to whales go beyond hunting to include ship strikes, fishing bycatch and the climate crisis.
Japan, which has pushed for years to lift the ban, left the commission a year after the 2018 session and is no longer bound by the restriction.
Commercial whaling in the 19th and early 20th centuries brought the mammals to the brink of extinction.
Wendy Higgins, director of international media at Humane Society International, said: “People assume that the whaling ban, which has saved the lives of hundreds and thousands of whales and dolphins, is done and dusted. But the ban is in jeopardy as long as there are countries in the IWC that will vote to return to whaling.”
Describing the “sustainable whaling” resolution as misleading, Higgins said: “I hope that whale-friendly countries will vote against the biggest threat to whale and dolphin conservation that we have seen in a long time.”
Jiří Mach, the IWC Commissioner for the Czech Republic, who is responsible for coordinating the positions of EU member states, said it was “absolutely clear” that the position of the EU and its member states is that they “support the maintenance and full implementation of the moratorium on commercial whaling in list and oppose any proposal that could undermine the moratorium or potentially cause threats to whale stocks.
The decisions come as the IWC faces financial difficulties following the departure of Japan, the Covid pandemic and global economic problems. A quarter of the 88 countries that make up the commission have not paid their annual contributions, which the IWC says are “crucial” to its continued mandate.
On Monday, the IWC agreed to change existing rules barring delayed countries from voting to reflect the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on developing countries.
Willie Mackenzie, ocean campaigner at Greenpeace International, said: “Greenpeace is encouraging all governments at the meeting to not only protect the ban on commercial whaling, but to go much further in tackling all other threats to the world’s remaining whales, dolphins and porpoises. populations – including climate change, industrial fishing, plastic pollution and habitat loss.”