Greenland seeks to extend whale hunts

Greenland asked the IWC recently to examine whether it could extend whaling by its Inuit hunters to humpbacks and bowheads. Anti-whaling nations attending the commission meeting in the Caribbean fortunately said they were opposed to the proposal given the fragile state of most whale species.

Environmentalists also said they were puzzled by the request because Greenland has for years failed to meet a quota of minke whales and fin whales that its indigenous hunters are permitted to catch under an exemption from an international moratorium on commercial whaling.

"We'd be very concerned about extending the hunt to two new species," said British Environment Minister Ben Bradshaw.

The ice-capped Arctic country of 65,000 people is allowed to hunt 19 fin whales and 187 minkes, a small species. It voluntarily reduced its fin whale catch to 10 after scientists at the IWC said they could not guarantee that the full quota was sustainable.

Both humpback and bowhead whales are endangered. Humpbacks, which grow to 52 ft and can weigh up to 45 metric tons, are thought to number between 10,000 and 15,000 worldwide. They are only hunted legally, and controversially, by the Caribbean country of St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Bowhead whales can grow to 60 ft and weigh up to 90 metric tons. Alaska's Eskimos are allowed to kill 41 bowheads a year under an aboriginal hunting exemption. Japan and other pro-whaling nations had been expected to take control of the IWC at this year's meeting and to begin chipping away at the global whaling ban. But anti-whaling nations including Australia and South Africa managed to retain a slim majority when the gathering began on Friday.

However the fight is not over yet and today, pro-whaling nations won their first vote to resume commercial whaling in 20 years. This is the most serious defeat that the whale conservation cause has ever suffered,environmental groups have accused developing countries of voting with Japan on whaling issues in return for money for fisheries projects

Currently, Japan and Iceland kill whales under an IWC ruling, which allows nations to catch whales for scientific research, and Norway, which formally objected to the 1986 ban, openly conducts commercial whaling.

source: Reuters