IWC53: Watching the whalers
IWC conference update: day 1
The first item on the International Whaling Commission's (IWC) agenda today was a long and complicated attempt by Iceland (backed by Japan, Norway and the at least nine countries whose votes Japan has very obviously bought) to re-join the IWC while rejecting the moratorium on whaling implemented by the IWC in 1986.
Luckily, even after a series of votes and legal manouvres by the pro-whaling nations, this was unsucessful! Iceland meantime made their intentions clear - saying that they wanted the moratorium on whaling overturned as quickly as possible so that whaling can resume.
The highlight of the afternoon was an attack on votebuying lead by the Minister of Conservation of New Zealand and supported by Italy, USA, UK, Australia, Netherlands, Mexico, Argentina, Germany and Monacco. The countries were trying to re-establish a commitment to open-ness and call on the IWC nations to ensure free participation of nations without theats of aid withdrawal being held over their votes. It is hard to see how the commission can make rational decisions if the rule of the nation with the deepest pocket wins is allowed to prevail!
Next was a discussion of whale watching and finally a discussion whales killing methods. This final agenda item focussed on why Japan could only achieve instant death rates (of harpooned whales) of 36.1% whereas Norway was able to achieve 78.2%. Other countries exprerssed disappointment that in light pf Japan's figures 64% of whales were not killed instantaneously.
