IWC 61 DAY ZERO

It is Sunday, the day before the annual meeting of the IWC and delegates are gathering in Madeira a mountainous island far out in the Atlantic Ocean.

So what can we expect at this meeting?

Arguably there are two big topics of concern:

The future of the IWC (featuring Japan’s never-ending ambition to achieve something loosely called Small Type Coastal Whaling); and

Greenland’s never-ending attempt to expand its hunt: and in this case its desire to add to its minke, fin and bowhead hunts one for humpback whales.

Both of these issues are complex and if we did not know better we might say deliberately so. But we will try here to give you the basic bones of both:

1. The Small Type Coastal Whaling Deal.

Many claim that the IWC stands at a cross-roads and for the last year there have been major diplomatic attempts to make a deal between the pro- and anti-whaling factions which have been so closely balanced at the Commission in recent years. The potential deal features some 33 different issues which are contested but at its heart lays an attempt to persuade Japan to move away from hunting using the pretence of science in the Southern Ocean in exchange for a hunt closer to home. The latter relates to what has become known as Small Type Coastal Whaling (STCW) – a kind of whaling that Japan has repeatedly suggested the IWC should recognize because it suggests some small communities in Japan have been disadvantaged by the moratorium on commercial whaling which came into force in 1986. Much of the negotiation over the particular potential swap has been going on behind closed doors for the last year but WDCS is very concerned that a new type of whaling might be agreed that provides yet another loop-hole (along with scientific whaling) in the whaling ban. Our fears received substantial support when at the recent IWC intersessional meeting in Rome, South Korea stepped up to say that if Japan received a small type quota they would like one too, thanks very much.

We would not be surprised if other nations did not start to do likewise and those that are whaling may try to cause further confusion by describing their activities as STCW.

2. Greenlandic Whaling.

The Greenlandic whaling claim is perhaps more straight forward (or perhaps not). The IWC has a category of whaling known as Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling. Some understand this as being put in place for certain coastal communities that had a long-standing ongoing nutritional (and cultural) need for whale meat. In other words they have a subsistence need for whale meat and their culture continues to be linked to eating whales. Last year Greenland, which has such communities, and has long been recognized as an aboriginal whaling nation attempted to expand its whaling activities (which hitherto were focused on minke and fin whales (and more recently bowhead whales) to include ten humpback whales). This was strongly fought by WDCS and others, mainly on the grounds that there was an extensive commercial whale meat trade across Greenland and, thus, it was not simply aboriginal in nature. The Greenlanders said that they would bring the proposal back; and this is what we expect to now happen.

Welcome to Madeira

It is difficult to know where to start in describing Madeira and probably many readers and especially those in the UK will have been here.

Here are some possible descriptions:

• A verdant and precipitous island archipelago set in an azure blue sea;
• A sub-tropical part of God’s big waiting room (reflecting the average age of the tourists);
• One vast hot-house covered with an amazing variety of flowering plants being enjoyed by generations of more discerning tourists;
• An island steeped in history and gradient

More about Madeira, the meeting venue and the likely availability of biscuits shortly.