Countdown to the IWC Meeting in May

By Kate O'Connell, CSI Board

With less than two months to go before the annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) takes place in Anchorage, Alaska, the issue of whale conservation has been as media-visible as it as been in many years. From burning whale ships in the Antarctic to Icelandic business moguls denouncing whaling to the UK effort to recruit new members into the IWC (see related article in this edition), the whaling issue hasn't left the news.

When the Japanese whaling fleet set sail for the Antarctic last November, intent on killing fin and minke whales as part of its JARPAII "scientific research" program, few could have imagined the incredible series of events that were about to take place. In early February, a series of clashes took place between the Sea Shepherd group and Japan's whaling fleet. Two activists from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society went missing when their small inflatable boat started to take on water after colliding with the hull of a Japanese whaling vessel. Rescue efforts were complicated by extremely poor weather conditions, including an icy fog. The two protesters were eventually discovered with their boat tethered to an iceberg, and were able to rejoin the group's mother ship, the Farley Mowat.

Simultaneous to the action in the Antarctic, from the 13th to the 15th of February, Japan convened a meeting in Tokyo called "The Conference for the Normalisation of the IWC". The aim of the meeting was obvious: to lift the commission's ban on commercial whaling (the agenda euphemistically stated the intent as "resum[ing] the function of the IWC as a resource management organization"). Although 35 countries did attend the meeting, twenty-six countries, including the US, the UK, Brazil, and New Zealand, boycotted the proceedings.

Although the normalization meeting was not held under the auspices of the whaling commission, the annual meeting of the IWC will discuss what took place in Tokyo. An agenda item has been included on the subject of the future of the IWC, and under this heading it appears that the chair of the Normalization Meeting, Kunio Nakamura of Palau, will be allowed time to present a summary report of the meeting and to open the issue for discussion.

While the participants discussed their efforts to promote whaling, the engine room of the 8,000 ton Japanese whaling factory ship the Nisshin Maru caught fire while in the Ross Sea. Most of the crew and scientists were safely transferred to other Japanese whaling vessels in the area, and a skeleton crew of about 30 remained on board to try and put out the fire and to repair the damaged ship. Sadly, one crew member, 27 year old Kazutaka Makita of Kagoshima Prefecture, died in the fire.

The Nisshin Maru lost power as a result of the fire, and the New Zealand Conservation Minister Chris Carter expressed his concern that the vessel could endanger the Antarctic ecosystem, in particular one of the world's most important penguin rookeries at Cape Adare. As Carter pointed out, the vessel carried thousands of gallons of toxic fuel oil, and the loss of power meant that the ship was unable to navigate on its own. The Nisshin Maru was eventually repaired and on the 24th of February headed back to Japan with 505 minkes and 3 fin whales, well short of the planned take. The six vessel whaling fleet made its way slowly back to Japan, and the Nisshin Maru anchored in Tokyo Bay on the 23rd of March. The Ministry of Fisheries is trying to repair the vessel so that it will be able to participate in the North Pacific research whaling season scheduled to begin later this year.

Since the decision by Iceland to resume commercial whaling last autumn, media reports have been going non-stop about the hunt and its impact on Iceland. Whales Alive! had reported in its last issue that the economy had already begun to feel the backlash of world opinion against the hunt (seven fin whales and one minke have been killed so far), and the outcry has only continued to grow. Not only have foreign entities called on Iceland to stop commercial whaling, several prominent Icelandic businessmen have done the same.

In early January of this year, one of Iceland's leading corporations, the Baugur Group, issued a press release condemning the government's decision to resume commercial whaling. "Whaling", said Baugur, "is damaging Icelandic companies and probably their continuing growth in future." This was followed one month later by equally strong statements against the hunt made by two directors of the Exista corporation (the company is the owner of the Bakkavor food group as well as one of the largest shareholders in Iceland's Kaupthing Bank); the executives said that Iceland's decision was "ill-advised" and a "fiasco".

The sentiments stated by Baugur and Exista seem to reflect a growing sentiment within the country against commercial whaling. In September of 2006, a Gallup poll conducted for the Icelandic Fishing Vessel Owners Federation had shown that only 11.5% of the respondents were against commercial whaling. However, a Gallup poll commissioned by the Icelandic Nature Conservation Association (INCA) in February of 2007 showed that 40% of those polled were dissatisfied with their government's decision to resume commercial whaling, a major shift in public opinion.

Kristjan Loftsson, the owner/managing director of the Hvalur company, has admitted to the Icelandic press that 100 tons of fin whale meat (other reports indicate that this amount could be higher) are still lying in a freezer. Loftsson has stated that the meat is awaiting tests to see if it contains any toxic contaminants which would rule out the likelihood of any export. In addition, the west-Icelandic newspaper Skessuhorn, reported that 179 tons of fin whale remains were dumped at the Sorpurdun Vesturland landfill, just west of the town of Borganes, in late October/early November.

The Norwegian minke whale hunt officially opens April 1st, although it is expected that whaling vessels likely will not return to port with any whales until after the Easter holidays and towards the end of the month. The Fisheries Department has given the whalers an overall quota of 1052 minkes, with 900 animals being allowed to be taken in coastal waters. This is a substantial increase in the easier-to-hunt inshore quota for the whalers to fill than last year's coastal quota of 609 minkes.

Recent Norwegian press reports indicate that the whaling industry is "approaching a state of emergency" (Fiskeribladet, 30 March), particularly as the whalers have been unable to export whale products. Fiskaren, another Norwegian fisheries publication indicated that blubber is still lying in storage and that buyers are spending capital for storing a product for which there are no sales.

Another concern for Norwegian whalers has been that there has been no real price increase for the whale meat they sell dockside to various buyers. The price has hovered around 29 or 30 kroner a kilo for years. As Whales Alive! headed to press, it was announced that the price for whale meat in 2007 would once again be set at 29.50 kroner a kilo (or about US$4.81/kilo).

The Annual Meeting of the IWC will be held in the United States for the first time since 1989. The commission will meet in Anchorage, Alaska from the 7th of May until the 31st of May (the Scientific Committee runs from 7 May until the 20th, followed by a week of technical meetings and ending with the Plenary session from the 28th to the 30th). The meeting promises to be even more contentious than usual, with much depending on which side - conservationists or whalers - controls the majority of votes.