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Japan loses ground in the battle of the whaling ban
INSIGHT
MARY SAGE/AP/PA PHOTOS
Japan loses ground in the battle of the whaling ban “JAPAN threatens to quit whaling forum.” It’s a headline we have got used to reading, but behind the rhetoric this year’s meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) saw a shift in power that has put Japan in a bind. For years, Japan has been convincing developing nations to join the IWC, using the inducement of aid to form a prowhaling bloc – or so its opponents claim. Last year it even obtained a onevote majority in favour of overturning the IWC’s 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling, though the vote fell short of the three-quarters majority needed to end the ban. This year’s meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, turned the tables on Japan.
The diplomatic game has left indigenous Alaskan whalers among the winners
Anti-whaling nations have persuaded Croatia, Cyprus, Ecuador, Greece and Slovenia to join the IWC and support the ban. In addition, Nicaragua defected from the pro-whaling camp, while Peru and Costa Rica resumed payment of their IWC fees and voted for the ban. “This year was a huge switch,” says Phil Clapham of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Seattle-based Alaska Fisheries Science Center, who sits on the IWC’s scientific committee. Knowing it lacked a majority, Japan initially tried being diplomatic. It voted to let indigenous Alaskans take up to 280 bowhead whales between 2008 and 2012; this is “subsistence” whaling that does not fall under the moratorium. The last time this came up, in 2002, Japan blocked the quota as a bargaining ploy, triggering a major row with the US. Even the International Fund for Animal Welfare, normally relentless in its criticism
of Japan, praised the “conciliatory tone” following the bowhead vote. That tone disappeared as the meeting proceeded. Japan had hoped that its support for the Alaskan bowhead quota would be reciprocated when it came to its own proposal to allow four Japanese villages to begin “small-type coastal” whaling, but it was not to be. The anti-whaling majority made it clear that they viewed this as a return to commercial whaling by the back door, forcing Japan to withdraw the idea. In his closing comments, Joji Morishita of Japan reiterated his country’s familiar threat to leave the IWC. Resuming commercial whaling outside the IWC would put Japan on a diplomatic collision course with the US and other allies, so many observers expect Japan to be back next year. But with the shift in power, it may need to devise a new strategy. Peter Aldhous ●
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9 June 2007 | NewScientist | 21
MARY SAGE/AP/PA PHOTOS
Japan loses ground in the battle of the whaling ban “JAPAN threatens to quit whaling forum.” It’s a headline we have got used to reading, but behind the rhetoric this year’s meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) saw a shift in power that has put Japan in a bind. For years, Japan has been convincing developing nations to join the IWC, using the inducement of aid to form a prowhaling bloc – or so its opponents claim. Last year it even obtained a onevote majority in favour of overturning the IWC’s 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling, though the vote fell short of the three-quarters majority needed to end the ban. This year’s meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, turned the tables on Japan.
The diplomatic game has left indigenous Alaskan whalers among the winners
Anti-whaling nations have persuaded Croatia, Cyprus, Ecuador, Greece and Slovenia to join the IWC and support the ban. In addition, Nicaragua defected from the pro-whaling camp, while Peru and Costa Rica resumed payment of their IWC fees and voted for the ban. “This year was a huge switch,” says Phil Clapham of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Seattle-based Alaska Fisheries Science Center, who sits on the IWC’s scientific committee. Knowing it lacked a majority, Japan initially tried being diplomatic. It voted to let indigenous Alaskans take up to 280 bowhead whales between 2008 and 2012; this is “subsistence” whaling that does not fall under the moratorium. The last time this came up, in 2002, Japan blocked the quota as a bargaining ploy, triggering a major row with the US. Even the International Fund for Animal Welfare, normally relentless in its criticism
of Japan, praised the “conciliatory tone” following the bowhead vote. That tone disappeared as the meeting proceeded. Japan had hoped that its support for the Alaskan bowhead quota would be reciprocated when it came to its own proposal to allow four Japanese villages to begin “small-type coastal” whaling, but it was not to be. The anti-whaling majority made it clear that they viewed this as a return to commercial whaling by the back door, forcing Japan to withdraw the idea. In his closing comments, Joji Morishita of Japan reiterated his country’s familiar threat to leave the IWC. Resuming commercial whaling outside the IWC would put Japan on a diplomatic collision course with the US and other allies, so many observers expect Japan to be back next year. But with the shift in power, it may need to devise a new strategy. Peter Aldhous ●
Laboratory Labelling Solutions. Bar Code Labels
Sample Tracking and Data Collection
Easy-to-use Portable Printers
■ LEGIBLE - Ink won’t smear or fade so there is no confusion over samples ■ MORE DATA - You can get more data on a label than you ever will by handwriting ■ LABELS WILL LAST - You don’t have to worry about degradation ■ RESILIENT - Can be used in hot, cold, freezer, humid, cleanroom and chemically harsh environments ■ FLEXIBLE - Software allows you to design your own label, add barcodes and integrate scanners For more information either: ring 01295 228288 or email [email protected]
www.newscientist.com
9 June 2007 | NewScientist | 21