Who ‘owns’ the whales in international disputes?
By Susanne Steffens
Oregon Otniy f meratij
The controversy over whaling
has complicated national rela
tions and has created tensions
and recriminations all over the
world.
Whales have become a symbol
of the environmental movement,
and many animal groups con
sider them highly intelligent
mammals that should not be
killed, but some nations strong
ly advocate whaling by arguing
their tradition of eating whales,
together with retaining industry
to protect jobs.
Since the International Whal
ing Commission was established
in 1946. the main problem tias
been to find a balance between
the whaling and anti-whaling
nations’ objectives and to reach
correct measures of the whale
stock throughout the year.
The resumption of commer
cial whaling is the most dis
putable question at present, on
account of the new estimation
from the Scientific Committee of
the International Whaling Com
mission agreeing that the stock
of minke whales is in no danger
of depletion or extinction.
Norway has, based on this
new information, harvested
minke whales from June this
year, and soon Iceland anti
Japan will follow. The new
catches have made the whole
world cry out in protest, threat
ening sanctions and boycotts,
which has made the Norwegian
government very nervous.
If whaling is prohibited as the
result of pressure from abroad —
despite scientific evidence that
limited whaling would not rep
resent a threat to the species of
whale in question — the fear is
that similar loss of sovereignty
over natural resources, such as
fish, energy, forests and miner
als, could follow The whaling
issue is a matter of principle for
Norway, uniting the country
behind the call for national sov
ereignty in resource .manage
ment.
It is clear that minke whales
are sufficiently abundant today
that they may he depleting the
food resources needed by clear
ly endangered whales — such as
the blue and bowhend whales
While minkes have flourished in
rec ent years, endangered whale
stocks have not shown signifi
cant signs of revitalization
Managing competing stoc ks
such as the minke will con
tribute to maintaining a balance
and help clearly endangered
whales to replenish their stoc ks
At the 1992 meeting of the
1WC. the Scientific Committee
unanimously conclu ' that the
north Atlantic minke v.. e is in
no danger of depletion or extirn
tiori, with about HfS.700 minke
whales in the northeast Atlantic.
alone.
The new evidence has
brought the anti-whalers togeth
er, willing to fight against any
catches from the whaling
nations. Most countries are at
present waiting for the United
States to voice a stronger oppo
sition to the killing of whales,
but no economic sanctions
against Norway have yet been
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accepted by the president
The decision is not at all easy,
because whaling < onr.erns the
private resources of a nation
Most Americans, however,
stand together behind the "Save
the Whales" movement that
includes many diverse air
man Is
Taken separately, none of
these elements would have had
the momentum to carry the
entire conservation community
toward a common goal, but
together they had a carrying
power that could not have been
anticipated. Together, they
would bring about the greatest
single victory in the history of
the environmental community,
the elimination of i oitiinert ml
whaling
One of the reasons that the
whale has been elevated to near
divine status is bet ause of the
media and recreational parks
like Sen World Feature films
like Flipper led to a long-run
ning television series of the
same name, where the protago
nist performed feats of intelli
gence.
Everybody fell in love with
whales and dolphins, primarily
bet auso of the way that they
were being depii ted on telev i
sion and in the movies, they
were sensitive, intelligent i rea
lures, whose only desire, it
appeared, was to make our lives
easier and mom enjoyable
Greenpeace was catapulted
into the forefront of the whale
conservation movement, with
the image of brave men III tiny
rubber boats trying to stop the
vv halers from getting their catch
es Photographs were repro
duced in magazines and news
Turn to WHALING. Page 180
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