Conservationists suffered a setback on Tuesday when two proposals for whale sanctuaries sank at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) annual meeting in Japan.
A proposal to create a sanctuary covering whale breeding areas in the Pacific Ocean off Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and extending to French Polynesia failed to reach the required three-quarters majority, with 24 votes in favour, 16 against and five abstentions.
New Zealand’s Minister of Conservation Sandra Lee, who noted it was the third year in a row the proposal had been tabled and rejected, was cheered by the four-vote gain in support from last year.
”Given the venue and a number of other issues, all in all the proposal has gone much better this year than we could have hoped for,” Lee said. ”All goes well for the future. I’m a perpetual optimist.”
Supporters expressed disappointment that the Solomon Islands, which would have been inside the sanctuary, chose to abstain.
”It was very disappointing that a Pacific Island brother voted against us,” said Filipe Tonga, a whale-watch tour operator from Tonga, which estimates it earns some $1,3-million a year in revenue from whale-watching holidaymakers.
After the vote, a similar proposal for a sanctuary off the coast of Brazil in the South Atlantic ocean, which was also submitted last year, failed by a similar margin.
Opponents of the sanctuaries such as Norway and Antigua and Barbuda argued the proposals lacked scientific backing and that regional arguments should not apply to international waters.
There are currently two whale sanctuaries put in place by the IWC, in the Indian Ocean and the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica.
The two sanctuaries would stay in force if a moratorium on commercial whaling, enacted in the 1985-86 season, is lifted. Since 1987 Japan has used a loophole in the accord setting up the moratorium to kill hundreds of whales a year for research.
Norway has engaged in commercial whaling since 1993, which is also allowed under the convention because it objected to the ban from the outset.
Japan’s whaling fleet, which conducts most of its hunt in Antarctica, plans to increase its annual take by 100 whales to 700 this year, while Norway has raised its quota to 674, 125 more than last year. – AFP
