| Background to IWC 2002 This page briefly sets out some of the events and issues which have arisen been leading up to the 2002 meeting. |
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The 54th Annual Meeting of the International Whaling Commission is likely to be just as contentious as other recent IWC meetings. The same controversial issues that have dogged previous meetings - including the Revised Management Scheme and the lifting of the moratorium on commercial whaling, the whale sanctuary proposals, the commercial whaling operations of Norway and the scientific whaling operations of Japan - are likely to cause conflict between members again. The tensions at this year's meeting are also likely to be increased by recent announcements by the world's two leading whaling nations, Norway and Japan, that they intend to increase their whaling operations and that trade between the two countries is likely to resume later this year. This page briefly outlines these events.
A number of recent developments are likely to heighten tensions between pro- and anti- whaling factions of the IWC when it meets in Shimonoseki at the end of May. In particular, both Japan and Norway have signalled their intentions to increase their whaling activities in 2002. In February, the Norwegian Fisheries Department announced that it would increase the commercial quota of minke whales from 549 to 674 animals, an increase of 23 percent over last year's hunt. The quota is not the highest that has been set by Norway since it resumed commercial whaling (a quota of 753 animals was set in 1993) but it is anticipated that the 2002 hunt will yield the highest catch since the resumption of whaling in Norway. (Currently this stands at a catch of 625 animals in 1998). According to the Fisheries Department, this level of harvest is consistent with a desire to ensure the conservation of the whales. Predictably, however, the increase has not been welcomed by environmental groups or anti-whaling groups, who argue that the exploitation rate is too high. The quota of 674 animals is based on a "tuning level" of .66, rather than a more precautionary and conservationist .72 level, recommended by environmental groups and anti-whaling countries. The tuning level is a mathematical formula designed by scientists to develop quotas. The higher the level, the fewer the number of whales that can be killed. The environmental groups argue that the readjustment of quotas by Norway to the lower tuning level underscores concerns that commercial pressures to make whaling profitable will lead to increasing quotas for whales.
The anticipated export of minke whale meat and other products to Japan is thought to be a major factor behind the increase. Norway decided in January last year to allow exports of whale products, although no trade has yet taken place because of concerns over the level of contaminants in the whales caught, which did not meet Japanese food hygiene standards, and because of a need to coordinate various regulatory measures, notably in relation to DNA monitoring, between the two countries. However, according to the Japanese Fishery Agency these obstacles have now been resolved and trade could now commence.
Shortly after the Norwegian announcement on the increased minke whale quota, Japan announced that it intended to expand its scientific whaling programme in the North Pacific to include a further species, the sei whale. This is the second recent expansion of the hunt, which was extended last year to include sperm and Bryde's whales. The Japanese research hunts have, of course, been the subject of much controversy within the IWC since they began in 1987 and have been consistently challenged by the anti-whaling majority within the IWC, which claim that the hunts are simply commercial hunts in disguise. The scale of the hunts, and the fact that substantial proportions of whale products from these hunts end up on supermarket shelves, seems to support these allegations, although this is denied by Japan, which points to the substantial research it has carried out through these programmes. The current focus of the research is the relationship between whales and fish stocks, as Japan has been attempting to argue that some of the large whale species contribute to the global decline in fish stocks because of the quantities of fish they consume. The latest expansion of the research program to include sei whales, for example, was largely promoted as an attempt to determine the impact of the sei whales' feeding habits on fish stocks in the North Pacific.
In addition to the interest in the whaling operations of Norway and Japan, there is also additional interest this year in the aboriginal subsistence hunts regulated by the IWC, as the quotas for all of these hunts, which were mostly set back in 1997 for a five year period, are all due for review at this year's meeting. The IWC allocates quotas for several species of whale - including humpback, bowhead, gray and minke - which are hunted, usually using traditional methods, by indigenous populations in Greenland, Russia, the United States and St Vincent and the Grenadines. Of these, the most controversial hunt in recent years has been the Makah hunt for gray whales in Washington State, United States. This year the Makah tribe has asked for a quota of five gray whales. However, the last time the Makah killed a gray whale was in 1999. This led to considerable protest within the United States and a series of lawsuits, some of which remain unresolved. Earlier this year, however, the US National Marine Fisheries Service gave the Makah a permit to hunt gray whales again, and also extended the option to include the local resident population, whereas previously, the US Government had limited the Makah hunt to the transient, migratory gray whales. This has caused concern amongst environmental groups because although the total population of the North Pacific gray whale is relatively abundant (estimated at around 26,000 individuals) there is concern that the local resident population is extremely small, possibly only tens of individuals. Nevertheless, the Makah have recently announced plans to resume hunting, although it is still not certain that the hunts will resume this year.
All three types of hunt - commercial, scientific and subsistence - can be expected to be the subject of contentious debate at the meeting. As usual, however, it is doubtful if much will be resolved as regards the commercial and scientific whaling issues. It is likely that the anti-whaling faction will retain a majority within the IWC and the moratorium on commercial whaling will remain in place. Two intersessional meetings of the Expert Drafting Group on the Revised Management Scheme have taken place since the last Annual Meeting, but little progress was made towards agreement on the final elements of the Scheme. It could be that the votes are closer this year than in previous years, however, because of recent changes in membership. Since last year's meeting, five new countries have joined: Benin, San Marino, Gabon, Palau, Portugal and Mongolia. There are also reports that Cape Verde may join before the meeting starts. Most of these States have expressed little interest in whaling before this year's meeting, and it is likely that these countries have been encouraged to become members by existing members, in order for the existing members to gain additional support for their positions within the IWC. At last year's meeting Japan was accused of "buying votes" by offering development aid to certain countries (mainly in the Eastern Caribbean and Africa) in return for support for its positions at the IWC meeting. These allegations have continued this year, particularly following the accession of Benin and Gabon, which have recently received additional development aid from Japan. On the other hand, the accession of San Marino and Portugal, which are likely to support the anti-whaling position. The probable result is that on most issues the outcomes will be the same as last year: the anti-whaling members retain a sufficiently large (but gradually decreasing) majority to force most issues. However, one issue where a difference could be made is the question of Icelandic membership of the IWC. Iceland is set to renew its application to join the IWC as a full member this year. It was denied this last year because the IWC, by the narrowest of margins (one of the votes on the subject was passed by just one vote), rejected its application on the ground that its instrument of ratification, which contained a reservation to the moratorium on commercial whaling, was not valid.
Whatever the outcomes on these votes are, it can be guaranteed that the whaling issue will continue to cause controversy and disruption between members of the IWC. Each year, the tension seems to increase a little further as the pro-whaling nations attempt to strengthen their stance and assert their rights to whale while the anti-whaling nations appear to have increasing resolve to stop whaling once and for all. All the signs are that this year's meeting will be as interesting and as controversial as previous years.