Whaling commission ends without agreement on management

Jun 24, 2005, 16:57 GMT

Seoul/Ulsan - The 57th Annual International Whaling Commission (IWC) concluded its five-day meeting Friday in the South Korean coastal town of Ulsan without reaching a compromise on a management scheme draft between the opposing camps.  

However, IWC member countries accepted a resolution presented by Germany, Ireland and South Africa on plans for further discussions on the revised management scheme (RMS) to permit controlled hunting.

The commercial hunt for large whales has been banned since 1986.

The working group is to meet ahead of the next IWC conference, set to take place on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts and Nevis, to discuss the "remaining issues that must be resolved before adoption of the RMS can be considered" and recommended talks at ministerial level, if necessary.

The contentious issues include controlling the limited whale catch and how to trace traded whale meat. Whale conservationists have called for independent controls of every whale catch which anti-whaling nations such as Japan and Norway have rejected.

 German delegation leader Peter Bradhering called the conference positive saying, "We have managed to maintain the ban on whale catching which has been in existence for 19 years," he said.

The anti-whaling camp including Germany, Australia and New Zealand had unexpectedly reached a majority in important issues at this year's conference, he noted.

The pro-whaling countries include Japan, Norway and Iceland.

   On Tuesday, the commission rejected Japan's proposal to replace the ban on commercial whaling with an RMS to allow controlled catches. A three-quarter majority of the 66 IWC members is required to lift the ban and they had not been expected to do so.

The IWC passed a resolution calling on Japan to cease its controversial whale catching programme for scientific purposes. But Japan then announced that it would double the catch quota for minke whales to nearly 900 animals and extend the hunt on the endangered fin whales and humpback whales.

Species protectors have accused Japan of using the legal "loophole" of whale catching for scientific purposes to circumvent the ban.