June 25th, 2010 - 62nd IWC
Although the moratorium is maintained, a quota of subsistence whaling was approved at the last moment.
Luego de 5 días de arduas deliberaciones y reuniones a puertas cerradas, la 62ª Reunión Anual de la Comisión Ballenera Internacional (CBI) llegó a su fin. Si bien se logró detener una propuesta que podría haber levantado la moratoria a la cacería comercial de ballenas, el último día nos dejó el sabor amargo de la aprobación de la inclusión de 9 Ballenas jorobadas por año a la cuota de subsistencia aborigen para Groenlandia.
After five days of arduous closed-doors discussions and meetings, the 62nd Annual Meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) ended. Although a proposal that would have adjourned the moratorium on commercial whaling was halted, the last day left us a bitter taste due to the approval of the inclusion of 9 Humpback whales per year to the aboriginal subsistence quota for Greenland.
Since 2007, Denmark, on behalf of Greenland which is one of its overseas territories, submitted a proposal for the inclusion of 10 Humpback whales per year to its aboriginal subsistence whaling (ASW) quota, claiming the need of more whale meat for its remote indigenous communities. While IWC grants a hunting quota to communities with nutritional and cultural recognized needs through the "aboriginal subsistence" whaling category, this request has created many doubts at every annual meeting in which it was submitted. This time Greenland offered to change its quota of other species of whales to include Humpback whales, so that the final amount of meat it would get with these changes would be smaller, thus making us wonder about its need of more meat for its communities. Furthermore, an investigation carried out by WDCS revealed that some of the meat obtained from the aboriginal subsistence quota ends up in supermarkets and luxury hotels in Greenland. Finally, based on a compromised proposal introduced by the European Union, the addition of 9 Humpback whales to the Greenland’s ASW quota was approved by consensus.
On the other hand, yesterday, a workshop on whale watching was agreed to be carried out in Argentina during November, which will have the support of Australia and the United States. The proposal arose from the IWC Conservation Committee and, in spite of being this Committee historically resisted by whaling nations, the proposal was approved unanimously. Whale watching is a growing industry in Latin America and has a very important socioeconomic value for countries of the region, and particularly in Argentina, for the communities of the Patagonian coasts. Besides, it is an activity in favor of the non-lethal use of cetaceans and therefore it has a great value for the conservation of these animals and their habitat. So much so that yesterday, the representative of Uruguay, Ambassador Gastón Lasarte, introduced the Statement of the Whale Watching Tourism Operators of Latin America and the Caribbean in Support of the Non-Lethal Use (Responsible Whale Watching Tourism) and the Conservation of Whales and Dolphins" during plenary session. It was signed by 111 whale watching operators from 10 Latin American countries which were summoned by NGOs of the region, among them, Fundación Cethus.
Finally, within the framework of the internal process called the Future of the IWC, it was agreed a time for reflection and the postponement of discussions. During this time, governments were asked to work to reduce the lack of agreement and to reach an agreement that minimizes discussions with the aim of making progress more easily.
Vanesa Tossenberger, Fundación Cethus’ representative at Agadir, Morocco, said "In despite of our happiness because of IWC decided to keep the moratorium, I must say that I am also very disappointed to know that more whales will be killed with the consent of IWC. This time, it was the turn of Humpback whales, leaving us a bad taste for the outcome of the meeting but it gives us more strength to continue in this struggle for the conservation of whales".
As a final evaluation of the 62nd IWC, in Cethus, we would have expected that this controversial meeting ended in a different way though we stress the role played by Latin American countries and the NGOs present in Agadir, which represented and defended the interests and convictions of all of us who do not want to continue associating whales with cruel images but see them spreading all their splendor in the sea.
Now we can confirm that the moratorium remains in force ... at least one more year.
Para más información:
www.cethus.org
www.iwcoffice.org |
