Flexibility needed on whaling issue
(From The Japan Times July 8 issue)

商業捕鯨容認の合意へ柔軟性を示せ

The International Whaling Commission decided June 23 in Agadir, Morocco, to postpone a final decision on a 10-year compromise proposal and to have a one-year cooling-off period before reviving talks. While it is unfortunate that the 88-member body failed to reach a compromise, a cooling-off period is better than a complete breakdown. It is hoped that whaling and anti-whaling countries will persevere to produce a mutually acceptable agreement next year.

The compromise proposal put forward by IWC Chairman Mr. Cristian Maquieira and Vice Chairman Mr. Anthony Liverpool called for lifting a 24-year-old moratorium on commercial whaling, abolishing the current classification of commercial, research and aboriginal subsistence whaling, and allowing Japan, Norway and Iceland to engage in limited whaling for 10 years.

Japan's commercial whaling was halted in 1986. The next year, it started research whaling in the Antarctic Ocean and Japanese coastal waters by unilaterally setting quotas — now annually 850 minke whales in the former area and 120 in the latter area — under the International Convention for Regulation of Whaling.

The compromise proposal would allow Japan to catch up to 120 minke whales a year in coastal waters off Abashiri (Hokkaido), Ayukawa (Miyagi Prefecture), Wada (Chiba Prefecture) and Taiji (Wakayama Prefecture). It would also cut Japan's annual quota in the Antarctic Ocean to 400 for the first five years and 200 in the next five years, and place Japan's whaling under strict monitoring by the IWC.

While data accumulated through Japan's research whaling is useful in determining the condition of whale populations from a perspective of sustainable use of resources, whale meat consumption in Japan is tiny. In fiscal 2009, Japan caught 506 whales in the Antarctic Ocean, about 60 percent of its quota. Japan was ready to accept the compromise proposal in principle. Hard-core anti-whaling countries should be a bit more flexible. For its part, Japan should carefully examine its whaling in the Antarctic Ocean both from a scientific and commercial viewpoint.

国際捕鯨委員会は今後10年に関する妥協案の採択を延期、協議再開まで1年間の冷却期間を置くことを決めた。決裂よりはいい。

妥協案は24年間の商業捕鯨モラトリアムをやめて、日本、ノルウェー、アイスランドに限定的捕鯨を10年間認める内容だ。

日本は1986年に商業捕鯨を停止、翌年、国際捕鯨取締条約のもと、捕獲枠を設定し南極海と日本海沿岸の調査捕鯨を始めた。

妥協案は日本に沿岸でのミンククジラ捕獲120頭を許可し、南極海での捕鯨頭数を削減、日本の捕鯨を委員会の厳しい監督下に置く。

日本の調査捕鯨で得られるデータは、資源の持続的利用の観点で有用だが、日本は鯨肉消費は少なく、妥協案を受け入れる予定だった。反捕鯨国は柔軟性を持ち、一方で日本は、南極海での捕鯨を科学的･商業的に見直すべきだ。