Japan dealt unexpected blow at whaling group

FRIGATE BAY, St Kitts and Nevis - Japan lost a crucial vote today at a meeting of the International Whaling Commission, giving it a setback in its long drive to overturn a two-decade-old international ban on whaling.

Japan and other pro-whaling countries failed to stop the group from discussing the fate of dolphins, porpoises and small whales, which are not covered by the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling but which conservationists say are as threatened as the great whales.

Conservation Minister Chris Carter is leading New Zealand's delegation at the convention.

The 32-30 vote against a proposal to remove small cetaceans from the IWC's agenda at a June 16-20 gathering on the Caribbean island state of St. Kitts and Nevis was seen as evidence the balance of power remained with environmentalists.

Environmental groups and anti-whaling nations had feared that Tokyo might finally have won enough countries to its side to start challenging the ban, which is credited by all sides with saving great whales from extinction.

"It's a big vote for small cetaceans," said Patrick Ramage of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

"It's not the big vote of the day in terms of signalling where this forum is headed," Ramage said, adding that a pending vote on adopting secret ballots within the IWC would be the decisive indicator of which side held the upper hand.

Japan and other whaling nations like Norway and Iceland have fought since 1974 to convince the IWC that it should limit its conservationist efforts to large whales, and stop discussing the fate of dolphins and porpoises, which Japan hunts in large numbers in its coastal waters for food.

It has also sought for two decades to garner enough votes within the IWC to start chipping away at the commercial whaling moratorium, arguing that some whale species have recovered and are abundant, and can be harvested in a sustainable way.

Tokyo almost got a simple majority at the annual IWC meeting a year ago in South Korea, but some allies failed to pay their dues and could not vote and others did not turn up.

"It feels a little to me like Groundhog Day here in St Kitts," joked British Environment Minister Ben Bradshaw when contemplating how often the voting within the IWC had been considered to be on a knife's edge before an annual meeting.

Japan has abided by the moratorium on commercial whaling but uses a loophole that allows for scientific whaling. Its fleets brought back 850 minke whales from Antarctic waters last season and 10 fin whales, and it plans to hunt humpbacks.

Iceland also conducts scientific whaling while Norway, the only nation to defy the international ban, has set its hunters a quota this year of 1,052 minke whales, a small species whose meat is eaten as steaks.

Japan's stated aim is to turn the IWC back into an organisation that regulates whaling in a sustainable manner. That was its purpose when it was established in 1946 but the rise of environmentalism has made it more protectionist.

Japan needs 75 per cent of votes to overturn the moratorium itself but can use a slim majority to water down the ban by changing the focus of the IWC.

Anti-whaling nations, led by Australia, Britain, New Zealand and South Africa, argue that whale-watching is more lucrative than killing them, and that the majestic creatures still need protection.

"There are enough whales for those who want to watch them and for those who want to eat them," Japan's assistant commissioner to the IWC, Joji Morishita, said in a briefing paper. "The situation is not different from a farm tour with a BBQ lunch."

- REUTERS