The day of contentious issues...
On the second day of the meeting, the topics that were expected to generate conflict arised: The Future of the IWC, the Humpback whale quota for Greenland, and Japanese small-type coastal whaling. However, until now there were no results with regard to this issues.

June 23th, 2009.- Funchal

The morning session began with a Chairman’s presentation about all the work developed since the 60th IWC annual meeting, which was held in Santiago, Chile. This information was included in Doc IWC/61/10 on the Future of the IWC, which was then subjected to discussion. That paper raised the possibility of extending the period of discussion until 2010. This was something that was expected for many of the participants due to the limited progress on critical issues that had been achieved in this process.

Although during the discussions various opinions about the process were heard, mainly between those in favor and against commercial whaling, the document was finally approved.

We must stress with some satisfaction the position of the Latin American bloc countries and its position in favor of conservation, who supported the document, and also in many cases made interventions during the discussion, expressing their opposition to scientific whaling (the more contentious subject in negotiations of this process), and their support for the sanctuaries and for the achievements of this negotiation process.

In such sense interventions of Chile, Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador and Argentina were heard. Finally, after discussions about the writing, this document was passed by consensus and it was agreed to continue working in this direction on Friday.

In the afternoon, another point that was expected to generate conflict during the meeting was raised: Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling (ASW). The Chair of the Subcommittee of Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling, reported on all the work carried out by this subcommittee. Although, as expected, many of the points found in the report were agreed, the West Greenland Humpback Whales proposal, through which a quota of 10 humpback whales requested, was also raised.

This topic is very controversial for the IWC, and particularly for the European Union (EU), to which Denmark (Greenland depends on this country) is a member. The EU has a strong conservationist position and a long tradition of voting as a bloc, so the application of Greenland, which is supported by Denmark, creates certain contradictions between its members and the public opinion.

Again, the countries of our region maintained a very clear stance on this issue, represented by the intervention of Argentina and Mexico. After listening to the voices in favor of the proposal, and the silence from the EU, it was agreed to continue this topic tomorrow morning.

After that the participants worked with the Revised Management Scheme (RMS) and the Scientific Committee presented its recommendations, which were finally adopted by consensus.

Finally with regard to the next point, Socioeconomic Implications and Small Type Whaling, both Japan and Korea explained why whaling is necessary for their communities based on their historical background. After some exchange of opinions, the second day concluded with the certainty that this point will be debate when the Future of the IWC will be again addressed.

Today, Vanesa Tossenberger, Fundación Cethus’ observer at the 61th IWC annual meeting, commented: "The countries of Buenos Aires Group have shown to be a compact block and based on technique information have made clear their position."

The Opening Statement of the governments of the region that composed the Buenos Aires Group (in English and Spanish), where it is clearly exposed its position at the 61th IWC, is attached to this information




Conference room where the 61th IWC is being conducted.

For more information about IWC:
www.cethus.org
www.iwcoffice.org