U.S., Russia seek whaling extension for native people

Associated Press

SHIMONOSEKI, Japan — After striking a compromise with Japan in late-night talks, the United States and Russia will again ask the International Whaling Commission to reconsider extending quotas allowing their native peoples to hunt whales.

The proposal, expected today, comes a day after their first request was turned down — a decision that heightened deep divisions between nations at the commission’s annual meeting in this southern Japanese port city.

Even as a breakthrough seemed near on the issue of aboriginal catches, other topics appeared headed for disputes in the meeting’s final day. The bickering, constant since delegates began discussions Monday, has delayed decisions and deepened doubts about the commission’s ability to function effectively.

In talks behind closed doors late Thursday, the United States agreed to amend its proposal, reducing its aboriginal catch quota and allowing Caribbean islands St. Vincent and the Grenadines an annual catch of four humpback whales — concessions pleasing to Japan because it backed the islands’ bid. The islands, in return, backed Japan.

U.S. officials were upbeat about the revised proposal’s chances for approval, but didn’t say whether they would try for a consensus or call a vote. A vote would require the backing of three-quarters of the whaling commission’s 48 member nations.

"We’re very hopeful now that we’ve arrived at an agreement for those quotas, and we’ll only know that tomorrow," said Rolland Schmitten, head of the U.S. delegation.

Japan, which orchestrated the proposal’s defeat earlier Thursday, called the new request "shrewd." However, Japanese officials didn’t outright oppose it.

"It’s a shrewd ploy," said Masayuki Komatsu, a senior member of the Japanese delegation.

In a surprise decision earlier Thursday, the commission voted 30-14 against aboriginal catch quotas requested by the United States and Russia. It was the first time such quotas have been denied since the body began ruling on aboriginal whaling in the early 1970s.

Opposition to the request was led by Japan, which refused to agree to a consensus and urged the 56-year-old whaling commission to take the matter to a vote. The vote needed a three-fourths majority to pass.

Japanese officials opposed the requests after Japan was denied the right to coastal whaling. Japan’s request to allow four coastal whaling towns to catch a total of 50 minke whales from nearby waters was rejected on Tuesday.

"This year the United States delegation has a message to take back home — end the hypocrisy," Komatsu said after the vote. "The U.S. requests for quotas are a complete double standard."

American officials say aboriginal whaling differs from Japan’s coastal whaling because there is no commercial benefit.

U.S. delegates had asked to allow Washington’s Makah Tribe an annual catch quota of four gray whales and allow the Eskimos 56 bowhead whales. Russia had requested that the Chukotka people living in its northeast be allowed to hunt 120 gray whales.

The new U.S.-Russia proposal would reduce the Eskimos’ haul by one bowhead whale. The aboriginal quotas weren’t the only polarizing issue.

Among topics expected to meet resistance was a proposal by a bloc of nations to ask the whaling commission to stop Japan from killing the marine mammals allowed under a controversial research whaling program. Japan kills hundreds of whales a year under its research whaling program, permitted by the commission. Tokyo says the haul is needed to study whale stocks, feeding and migratory patterns.

But opponents call the hunt commercial whaling in disguise since the meat is sold after the research.

On Thursday, the commission rejected Japan’s proposal to lift the ban on commercial whaling imposed in 1986.