Pacific states desert New Zealand in whaling vote

Boxes of whale meat are unloaded from a Japanese research ship. Picture / Greenpeace

An international whaling forum erupted into scenes of despair and elation yesterday as whaling promoters won a historic victory thanks to tiny Pacific nations abandoning New Zealand to vote with Japan.

Neighbouring countries which had given assurances they would not support a resumption of commercial whaling at the International Whaling Commission meeting instead helped to push through a "declaration" calling for the resumption of commercial whaling and for the organisation to return to its original purpose - regulating the whale hunt.

The vote was won by the slimmest of margins, 33 votes to 32.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said the Government would express its sadness to those Pacific countries who voted with Japan to secure the victory but had no plans to tie aid funding to such votes.

Instead, she hoped continuing "moral pressure" would ultimately influence Japan and those it had encouraged to vote on its side.

The resolution labelled the 20-year moratorium on commercial hunts "no longer necessary".

Helen Clark said the result was disappointing.

"It does mean we cannot count on whales being safe for the future. On the other hand, it doesn't mean commercial whaling is about to resume. There's a rather high test for that."

Conservation Minister Chris Carter, leading the New Zealand delegation, said the first substantial victory for Japan in 25 years was "particularly disturbing".

"I was given some understanding in several of those countries they would never agree to a resumption of whaling."

Large dollops of Japanese aid, or promises of aid - including a reported $22 million to the tiny nation of Tuvalu in the past two years - is thought to have played a major part in voting.

The declaration drew derision because it blamed whales for depletion of fish stocks.

"That's like blaming a woodpecker for deforestation," said Greenpeace spokeswoman Jo McVeagh.

Apart from Australia, Pacific neighbours Tuvalu, Kiribati, the Solomon Islands, the Marshall Islands, Nauru and Palau swung in behind Japan for the final vote. China was the only country to abstain.

Although the 1986 moratorium on whaling still stands - pro-whaling nations need a three-quarters majority to overturn it - the ban is now under real threat.

"Our greatest fear is that the moratorium will be overturned, if not next year then the year after," said Bridget Vercoe, a spokeswoman for the conservation group WSPA New Zealand.

Japan also announced at the meeting, held in the Caribbean nation of St Kitts and Nevis, that it would expand its so-called "scientific research" programme next year by killing 1300 whales, including 25 humpback and 25 fin whales for the first time.

New Zealand marine mammal biologist Dr Simon Childerhouse said Japan could carry out the hunt inside the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary near New Zealand.

"These whales are some of the ones that could be killed. It's appalling," he said.

Japanese whaling commissioner Minoru Morimoto said the victory added weight to Tokyo's view that the IWC needed to be "normalised".

"This is not the end, it's the beginning, the beginning of securing the IWC as a resource management organisation once again."

The IWC had "failed to meet its obligations" in delivering "sustainable whaling", he said.

Japan earlier suffered a series of defeats on its call for secret voting by IWC members, allowing Japanese coastal communities to kill whales and scrapping the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary.


- Additional reporting by Ruth Berry