Humpback whale threats

Humpback whales leaving Cook Islands waters after the annual breeding season could end up being slaughtered by Japanese whalers. That's likely to be the bloody result if anti-whaling nations can't drum up the numbers to block Japan from winning support at an International Whaling Commission meeting this year.

The support of island nations like the Cook Islands, Samoa and Tonga is crucial. But overseas reports say their governments have said they can't afford the IWC membership fees of about $20,000. The Cook Islands has declared a whale sanctuary within its massive Exclusive Economic Zone, but whale researcher Nan Hauser, says there will be nothing to stop the Japanese from killing the whales as they leave the zone. That will have an enormous effect on the numbers of humpbacks visiting the Cook Islands, because relatively few of them come here in the first place, she says.

Japan needs support of 75 per cent to reverse the international moratorium on whaling. However a majority of just 51 percent would to allow it to introduce secret balloting and wreck the commission's conservation efforts. Japan has been accused of giving some poor island nations money in return for supporting votes in the IWC. A New Zealand newspaper claimed this week the Cook Islands, Samoa and Tonga had said they could not afford the steep fees to join the organisation and send delegates to its annual meeting, which this year is being held in the West Indies. Hauser says membership costs about $20,000 including dues and airfares and accommodation for delegates.

Writing to the Cook Islands Herald from Maine, USA, Hauser said she had been trying to encourage the Cook Islands to join IWC for the past few years. “The previous prime minister, Dr Robert Woonton thought it was a great idea and even when he left, the previous New Zealand High Commissioner, Kurt Meyer, was pushing for the Cooks to join. In fact we thought that it seriously was going to happen . “I guess it all comes down to the money.” Hauser, who spends part of the year conducting whale research here, says she is still hoping the Cooks will consider joining.

If Japan got the go-ahead for commercial whaling their ships could not come into any of the sanctuaries created across Oceania. But that would not stop Japanese whalers from killing the humpbacks as they left the protected areas, she added. “The whole situation is crazy. We are fighting as hard and as intelligently as possible though the South Pacific Whale Research Consortium, of which I am on the executive committee.”

Marine Resources Secretary Ian Bertram said joining the IWC would be a good move for the Cook Islands, especially as it was one of the first South Pacific countries to establish a whale sanctuary. “We should be able to scrape up $20,000. Saying that we cannot afford it is not a reasonable excuse. And the Pacific nations have to join together on this one because there's no point in us having a sanctuary if they’re killing whales next door.” Both Bertram and National Environment Services director Vaitoti Tupa said they had not had any contact with the IWC or New Zealand over the matter.“This is a very important issue and government should be supporting it,” Tupa said. “I have had no approaches about it – maybe the Office of the Prime Minister has.”