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Jon Stern attends the International Whaling Commission Meeting
in St Kitts!
Japan Claims to Have Found WMD’s
The recent International
Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in St. Kitts-Nevis marked the
first time in several decades that pro-whaling countries held a
voting majority, albeit a slim one. Great. Oddly enough, only
one resolution proposed by pro-whaling nations passed. This
called for the IWC to, among other things, return to its mandate
of managing the killing of whales, and not conserving them. This
was a non-binding resolution but embedded its language was a new
“official” incentive to kill whales. Pro-whaling nations, led by
Japan and Norway claim that whales are eating too much fish.
Therefore killing whales is necessary for, and I am not making
this up, the “nutritional security of nations”. As proof, Japan
showed a video of a fishing boat hauling in a net full of
Pacific Saury, (that’s a fish). A minke whale surfaced nearby.
The next scene was the stomach of THAT minke whale, sliced open
with its contents of Pacific Saury spilling onto the deck of the
ship. This was supposed to be a “Ladies and gentlemen of the
jury, I rest my case…”-moment, or, in the parlance of our times,
“a smoking gun”. Finally, WMD’s were found, but in this case,
they were “Weapons of Mass Digestion”, and they will starve us
out, if we are not vigilant.
In the 20th
century, commercial whaling resulted in decimation of most whale
stocks. With the decline of the larger species, minke whales
which are relatively small, and in some areas, numerous, became
the choice for whalers. Since 1986 the IWC member nations have
supported a moratorium against commercial whaling while a new
management scheme was being developed and tested. During the
moratorium, Japan has utilized an IWC provision allowing them to
kill minke whales for “Scientific Purposes” in the Northwest
Pacific and Antarctic Oceans. The weird thing is, the management
scheme does not require information of the type collected from
the dead whales. The precautionary approach of the management
scheme, set catch quotas that are low, and in some cases, zero!
So Japan is tossing that management plan in favor of a
multi-species, ecosystem management approach whose goal is to
manage the marine food web, or how many of who gets to eat how
much of whom. This is touted as…wait for it….a “common sense”
approach. Norway, content to limit hunting minke whales in their
“local” waters has pretty much ignored the moratorium since
1993.
Folks, there is a bad moon rising, global fish stocks are
declining. And it is true that some whales eat some
fish, at some times in some places. But do they
eat all the fish? Is this bio-energetically possible?
Several studies suggest it is not. Never mind that there is a
more efficient, opposably-thumbed predator who likes to consume
massive quantities of fish. But over-fishing is not the only
problem facing fish stocks. In addition, climate change,
pollution, habitat destruction and natural cycles all influence
fish abundance and distribution. However, blaming whales cuts
through this complexity, making them the perfect fall-guy. You
can see them eating fish, you can look inside their stomachs to
show that they have eaten fish, and after you kill them to stop
them from eating fish, you get to eat them as well. It is time
to put serious thought into this renewed threat against whales,
the justification used for killing them and more importantly, in
these global-changing times, whether we actually understand
ocean structure and function well enough to manage it for
specific goals and outcomes.
Whale Watch Operators Association gives a warm reception to
Minke Whale Research
25 October 2005, Friday Harbour, WA
During the open
session of the Annual General Meeting for the Whale Watch
Operators Association NW chapter, researcher Frances Robertson
gave a short presentation to bring the members up to date with
the current state of minke research in the San Juan Islands.
We were able to make a request to operators for their
minke sightings for the ‘Stock Project’ and also let them
know about the production of a minke whale identification guide
for whales that have been photographed and identified around the San
Juan Islands over the last few years.
Both projects were greeted with interest, and a number of
operators have said they are willing to send us their sightings
as well as photographs. The
presentation also gave way to a brief discussion regarding the
minke whale around the San Juan Islands and an interest was expressed
in historical sightings data as well as suggestions of where we
could put search effort in next season. Overall
the operators were interested in our work and seemed keen to
help out with sightings data.
For further information regarding the Whale
Watch Operators Association
http://www.nwwhalewatchers.org
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