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26 February 2002
Anti-whaling countries held to
ransom
 Auckland,
New Zealand: Away from public notice and behind closed doors
in New Zealand, delegates of the International Whaling Commission
(IWC) are hammering out a final plan to resume whale hunting.
Outside Auckland’s Ascot Metropolis hotel, where the delegates
are staying, Greenpeace is keeping vigil. Activists wearing eyeball
costumes are shadowing the delegates whenever they appear publicly.
As the sun sets over Auckland’s harbor, giant color photos of whale
hunts are projected onto a large wall opposite the ritzy hotel.
“Stop Whaling” posters and banners are hung in strategic shopping
and eating venues to let delegates know that the world is watching.
Through a series of public engagement activities this week, Greenpeace
will raise public awareness that commercial whaling is on its way
back should the pro-whaling nations have their way.
The Government of Japan’s vote-buying strategy has dramatically
increased pressure on anti-whaling countries to agree to a management
plan for hunting whales.
Full-scale commercial whaling could be resumed despite deep differences
over the plan because vote buying by the Fisheries Agency of Japan
is likely to secure a majority at the May 2002 meeting of the IWC
where the plan is to be discussed.
“What Japan is doing should be condemned in the strongest terms,”
said Sarah Duthie, Greenpeace oceans campaigner. “The failure of
the international community to say something sends the signal that
issues of international concern will be decided by the highest bidder.
In this case, we’re concerned that vote buying means a return to
full-scale commercial whaling worldwide.”
Last year’s IWC meeting was shaken when a senior Japanese official
admitted that his country uses aid to buy votes. A Caribbean Prime
Minister who admitted that his country supports Japan on whaling
in return for aid corroborated this. There were 10 bought countries
at last year’s meeting in London, up from five countries attending
the IWC in 1993. (1)
“Given how commercial whaling has always devastated whale populations
in the past and how the world’s remaining whales are now seriously
threatened from the on-going degradation of the oceans (2),
the IWC should not be developing such a scheme. What the IWC must
address is Japanese vote-buying or be responsible for the consequences,”
said Duthie.
“The precedent the Fisheries Agency is setting undermines acceptable
norms of behavior. Any victory by them at the next IWC meeting will
have been bought and not won.”
In recent weeks, the Fisheries Agency of Japan has declared that
it wants to lift the moratorium on commercial whaling.
Should the Government of Japan succeed in buying votes to attain
a majority at the upcoming IWC meeting in Japan, then it will have
gained a significant advantage toward expanding whale hunting in
other parts of the world.
The end of the present planning meeting will mark 80 days until
the next IWC meeting and with it a possible resumption of commercial
whaling.
See the Greenpeace
New Zealand website for more details.
More information:
1. In the run-up to the 2001 IWC meeting a senior
member of the Japanese delegation, Mr Komatsu, confirmed that Japan
was vote buying. In an interview with ABC TV, Australia, Mr Komatsu
admitted that Japan had to use the “tools of diplomatic communications
and promises of overseas development aid to influence members of
the IWC". The Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Lester
Bird, independently corroborated this. The Caribbean News Agency,
CANA, reported him saying: "So long as the whales are not an
endangered species, I don’t see any reason why if we are able to
support the Japanese, and the quid pro quo is that they are going
to give us some assistance, I am not going to be a hypocrite; that
is part of why we do so."
The Fisheries Agency of Japan’s vote buying programme is gathering
momentum. At the 1993 meeting the Fisheries Agency had just five
countries on its payroll. By 1999 there were seven. Japan brought
one new country into the IWC in 2000 and two more in 2001. The Agency
now enjoys the support of 10 nations whose votes are paid for: Antigua
and Barbuda, Dominica, Guinea, Grenada, St Vincent and the Grenadines,
St Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, Solomon Island, Panama and Morocco.
All of these except Morocco vote with Japan on every issue. The
votes of these countries, combined with those of nations like China,
Korea, Norway and Russia, which vote with Japan for their own reasons
mean that the Fisheries Agency is within three or four votes of
having a majority in the IWC.
The Fisheries Agency of Japan is believed to have stepped up its
vote buying drive, concentrating on West Africa.
2. There is evidence that toxic pollution, ship
noise, ozone depletion, global warming, and overfishing threaten
whale populations. For more information see the Greenpeace report
(pdf), “Whales
In A Degraded Ocean”.
Media contacts:
Robert Maletta, International Media Officer, Greenpeace International/Oceans
Campaign
mob: (+31)-6-212-969-20 or
Sarah Duthie, Oceans Campaigner, Greenpeace New Zealand
Tel: (+ 64)-9-630-6317 mob: (+64)-25-927-301 fax: (+64)-9-630-7121
For photos of activities contact: Robert Maletta, mob: (+31)-6-212-969-20.
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whales | whaling | environmental impacts | solutions | greenpeace & the whales
In
recent years Japan has actively and openly corrupted the IWC
by using Overseas Development Aid (ODA) to buy the votes of
some existing members and to recruit new members in support
of a resumption of commercial whaling. Although some countries
have challenged Japan and Norway's attempts to resume commercial
whaling, the reality is that Japan is buying a return to commercial
whaling.
