Whaling and the IWC
Frank Future a director of Imagine Cruises and secretary of Whale and Dolphin Watch Australia the national commercial whalewatch association, attended this years International Whaling Committee meeting in Alaska. This meeting was seen as a critical point to the future of Australia’s Humpback whale watching industry. Following is Franks report outlining the issues Australia is now facing with Japan intending to kill 50 of Australia’s Humpbacks this summer…………
“Firstly and most importantly Australia and its anti whaling allies did not manage to save the 50 Humpback whales that remain in the firing line for this summers whale hunt. The Japanese delegation appeared to be up for a negotiation but they wanted a legitimate quota of large whales in their own coastal waters and no anti whaling country could agree to this. The request was presented as an Aboriginal subsistence-whaling quota justified by a long cultural history of whaling. Non-whaling countries saw it however, as the thin end of the wedge that would ultimately lead to a return to commercial whaling.
As usual the whole IWC meeting was quickly polarized. No one really got anything they wanted and everyone went away frustrated and angry. A little background on the International Whaling Commission is essential to better understand its workings.
The IWC was formed just after WW2 in 1946 by the worlds whaling nations and Australia was one of around a dozen countries that actively engaged in whaling. Its founding mandate was to “take responsibility for managing the worlds great whale populations for the orderly development of the whaling industry,” and this somewhat outdated primary purpose still remains unchanged today.
Whale watching, a $2 billion dollar industry of course didn’t exist in 1946 and sadly the IWC rules would require a 75% majority of its 70 odd members to change its original purpose into something more meaningful and current. The chance of getting this majority is very slim as Japan attracts new members each year with offers of foreign aid in exchange for voting allegiance.
Whale watching as a legitimate and non-lethal user of Whales now enjoys a majority vote of member delegates and has a place within the structure of the meeting. It is however not recognized as anywhere near the main event of the IWC. Despite its global economic advantage over commercial whaling, it still only got 4 hours of discussion out of 4 days of meetings and Japan will forever try to remove it from the Agenda given half a chance.
Why does Japan want to kill our whales? Countless polls taken in Japan indicate that most Japanese people do not share their Governments view on whale killing. Japanese visitors on whale and dolphin watch boats in Australia are amongst the most vocal and emotional when it comes to Whale and Dolphin watching.
There is little doubt the average Japanese person does not want anyone around the globe to see them as cruel or vindictive and yet whaling is most certainly cruel. Time to death of whales far exceeds anything allowable for domestic farm animals that are slaughtered for meat. If it took an hour to kill a cow every animal cruelty group in the world would go ape. From an Australian perspective it is also hard not to see it as anything but vindictive when the Japanese Fishing Agency have chosen a specific population of whales that we enjoy and see as ours by their birthright, virtually all the Humpbacks they intend to kill were born in Australian waters and travel our coast each year.
The first picture of a dead Humpback sliding up onto the flensing deck of the Nishon maru is bound to open up some deep resentments at a time when our PM and his Japanese counterpart are signing bipartisan friendship agreements and trying to open up free trade concessions.
Japan says it would like to return to commercial whaling. In the mean time they see it as their sovereign right to hunt whales with a self allocated scientific license. The issue is probably more a domestic political issue in Japan than driven by the need to eat whale meat. Thousands of tones of this meat are already stockpiled and despite it being given away in schools as hamburgers it still doesn’t seem to be catching on with young folk.
Whale meat was widely eaten after WW2 but many of those folk still see it as the food they had to eat for survival and not the cultural delicacy the government are trying to promote it as.
Japan sees all international waters and the creatures in them as fair game, especially given their own relatively small landmass, large population and general dependency on seafood.
There is also the national pride issue, standing up to the rest of the world brings up Japanese Nationalist sentiment and some of those political groups back the Governments tough stand.
Information has now been confirmed that Japan is building another mother ship and catcher boat and is happily awarding itself more “scientific quotas” on any species they want despite the large stockpiles of unsold meat and endless IWC recrimination.
For a more detailed report on the IWC events, check out on our web site at:
Whaling IWC Report
Teens Against Whaling
Two young Aussie teenagers Skye Bortoli and Ayesha Future seen regularly live on the Today Show during the IWC meeting proved that the Internet is a brilliant way to connect with other kids.
Young folk don’t watch the news on TV much nor do they read newspapers but they do log on. “These are our whales” as 14 year old Skye Bortoli eloquently points out when she says “the first thing these whales see at birth is Australia’s coastline and if anyone has the right to determine their future it should be us!” A powerful message on You tube and My space coupled to a dynamic web site continues to attract thousands of young people to sign up in opposition to the whaling of Australia’s Humpbacks.
In fact many of the 40,000 signatures they delivered in a red wheelbarrow to the IWC chairman came from people from all over the world. The petitions came not just from their web site but also from Aussie commercial whalewatch boats. Collected in just a year, they represent a fraction of the million or more folk who went whale watching in Australia last year.
Get the Teens kids own reflections on IWC & Whaling.
Whale mascots for Aussie cities.
More than 27 Coastal Councils along the east coast of Australia have now adopted a Humpback whale as a mascot including Byron bay, Hervey bay, Port Stephens, Newcastle and Sydney. The program has now spread to the West coast of Aus via WADWA president Steve Mitchell and more recently New York heard about the whale adoption program and wants to apparently have one of our whales as a mascot too! Maybe your town would like to find out how they can adopt a whale, email us on this one.
What can I do to help stop this you might ask?
Despite Malcolm Turnbull’s valiant efforts and he did work hard at it, Japan still hasn’t heard us and I think our PM should let his counterpart know that that this issue will cause some bad feelings between our two countries.
These are Australian animals and as Skye Bortoli says…”if anyone has the right to determine their future it should be us”!
We have grown from a whaling country into a country concerned with conservation. We are fascinated by these gentle giants that provide such a happy spectacle on their journey and the thought of them disappearing again I think sickens most Australians.
Commercial whale watching is valued at more than $300 million a year and provides thousands of jobs in tourism during the winter in small coastal towns all around the country and there is no doubt this will be threatened.
We have no idea how the whales will react to vessels in close proximity once these long-lived big-brained mammals begin to associate boats with pain and death. It’s hard to imagine they will be as friendly as they are now. A frightened 40 tonne animal is not my idea of fun to be around.
We all need to engage our government and insist that the PM makes this a priority issue with his Japanese counterpart.
The single most effective thing anyone can do is:
Write a letter to:
Mr John Howard,
Prime Minister,
Parliament House,
Canberra, ACT 2600
Tell him why you think he should stop the Japanese from killing Australia’s Humpback whales and ask him what he proposes to do about it?
He won’t read it but his staff will and if you put a question in the letter they will have to respond. The letters are counted and it is taken as a proportional reference as to how all Australians think about the issue. Like everything, if it becomes political, they will act.
The opposition has already said they will take up legal options against Japan in the International courts so it has put some pressure on the PM to really do something. If we don’t act now, we will begin losing our magnificent Humpback whales this summer.
You can also EMAIL OUR PM
Go to this site
http://www.pm.gov.au/email.cfm
Port Stephens is now hosting the “Festival of the Whales” during the spring school holidays from 29th September – 14th October 2007. Come and celebrate the return of the whales. d’Albora Marinas at Nelson bay have partnered up with whale cruise operators Moonshadow, Imagine and Spirit Cruises plus booking services Port Stephens boat hire, KD Winnings and the RSL to host this years festival.
