Should Europe pay for the resumption of Whaling ?
The 62nd plenary session of the International Whaling Commission will be held in Agadir from June 21st to 25th. The fate of a surrealistic and double-dealing compromise will be decided there, that would confirm for 10 years Japanese, Norwegian and Icelandic whaling, from the Arctic to Antarctica. This document, a hybrid product of dialogue between a few IWC member states, includes target-species such as Fin whales, Minke whales, Humpback whales, Southern Right Whales, Bryde whales, Sei whales and Sperm whales. Of course, the return of hunting will be stamped and certified by the presence of observers aboard the whaling fleets. They will not work for charity. Their official salary is billed to the IWC and contributions made by European member states will grow from 800.000 to 1.500.000 euros per year altogether. Efforts will be made and financed too so as that whales be not exposed during capture and killing to unneeded pain. All is done to ensure the well-being of the whales while they are speared.
“Baleinafric”
57th International Whaling Commission Ulsan, Korea. June 20-24, 2005.
With Japan playing the pied piper, a new factor of Intra-African unification and cooperation is in the making. Benin, Cameroon, the Ivory Coast, Gabon, Guinea, Mauritania, Morocco, and Senegal all support the Japanese initiative to develop whaling in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary. Togo, Mali, and Gambia are in the process of integration into the International Whaling Commission (IWC). Only South Africa voted against JARPA II (see press release in French “J’harponne II”, June 7, 2005).
Harpoon II
At the 57th session of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), to be held in Ulsan, South Korea from June 20th-24th, Japan will introduce JARPA II, a new long-term whaling programme in Antarctica, which would be made legal by a scientific research loophole. JARPA I (Japan’s Whale Research Program under Special Permit in Antarctica), in place since 1988, exclusively tracks and captures Minke whales. The annual quota of these “scientific” hunters was 300 whales. Since 1995, the total exceeds 400. All this takes place in the Antarctic Sanctuary established by the IWC in 1994.
