McCully hopes Japan's 200 whales means zero

Greenpeace has been 'enormously constructive' during efforts to get a diplomatic solution to international whaling, according to McCully. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Foreign Minister Murray McCully says he wants to delve deeper into Japanese whaling targets at the International Whaling Commission meeting in Morocco to see if they effectively mean "no whaling" when they say "200 whales".

Mr McCully arrived in Agadir yesterday afternoon for a make-or-break meeting of the commission.

Speaking from Morocco yesterday, he said there was a strong possibility Japan would not commit itself to a figure of zero "but accept that what's available in terms of numbers is not commercially viable".

"A number around 200 is possibly in that territory."

Mr McCully is joining forces with Greenpeace and other non-government organisations in a bid prevent the IWC from implosion and what he says could be "anarchy" on the seas.

New Zealand's commissioner, Sir Geoffrey Palmer, has led a subcommittee to try to get an agreement to lift the moratorium on commercial whaling in exchange for a phase-out of commercial whaling altogether.

That proposal would see the present Japanese kill of about 500 in the Southern Ocean being reduced to 400 for five years, before dropping to about 200 a year, something Mr McCully originally called unacceptable.

Mr McCully suggested that with its costly whaling fleet due for replacement in three or four years, a catch limit of 200 in five years' time might not be viable for Japan.

"There is a real possibility that they won't say zero but will know that the number that remains instead of zero is a number that effectively means zero for them."

He wanted to find out what Japan really thought about it "and find out whether we have a way forward".

He said commissioners would go into a private session tonight to do a stocktake of everyone's positions. "We will gauge the level of realism on display. I didn't come here to work on my suntan."

Mr McCully also praised NGOs such as Greenpeace and the World Society for the Protection of Animals, saying they had been "constructive partners" in the bid to get a diplomatic solution to international whaling.

He will be meeting New Zealand NGOs in Agadir.

"Their attitude has been enormously constructive," the Foreign Minister said.

"Rather than telling us to pull out of the talks and head off to the court they've simply told us that we need to negotiate a better deal, which shows they have a very realistic and responsible appreciation of what the alternatives are to finding a solution here."