Ocean Sentry
(from Times Online) Japan has threatened to resume commercial whaling after a suspension of more than 20 years, in a gesture of defiance towards conservationists and anti-whaling governments around the world.
The threat was issued alongside a demand for progress in negotiations at the body meant to act as a forum for mediation on the issue, the International Whaling Commission (IWC). In light of the threat, some now fear that the IWC may be in danger of total collapse unless it can rebuild its function as a constructive forum for debate on the whaling issue.
Critics of the IWC’s structure, and the susceptibility of less wealthy nations to persuasion by richer ones like Japan, believe that the commission has already been undermined: in 2006, and under Japan’s clear initiative, the IWC narrowly passed a motion declaring the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling “no longer necessary”.
In response, the anti-whaling movement has grown progressively more activist. Japan’s supposedly “scientific” whaling fleet hunted its prey in the Southern Ocean under the near-constant scrutiny and sabotage efforts of groups such as Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace. The final catch – of 550 minke whales – was a little over half of the planned haul.
The chaotic scenes on the high seas, which included several exchanges of home-made missiles, marked the peak of a steady escalation by both the whalers and the activists. Japan is reluctant to yield any ground on its perceived right to hunt whales,believing that the compromise would open the door to other legal restraints on its extensive tuna fishing activities.
