Monaco - 08 February 2001: The IWMC World Conservation Trust would support the lifting of a worldwide moratorium on commercial whaling if strong progress was made on implementing the International Whaling Commission's Revised Management Scheme, IWMC president Eugene Lapointe said today.

Mr. Lapointe, who is in Monaco observing the IWC's RMS Working Group intersessional meeting to complete the scheme, which would bring about a return to commercial whaling on a sustainable basis, said implementation of the RMS would be a well-deserved victory for whaling nations around the world.

"In principle, this meeting on the completion of the Revised Management Scheme should conclude with the normalization of the whaling industry, which would uphold the principles of the 1946 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling," Mr. Lapointe said.

"The RMS fits very much into the beliefs and practices of the IWMC in promoting sustainable use of marine resources and protecting and respecting other cultures and traditions."

IWMC is an international organization devoted to the promotion of sustainable use as a conservation mechanism, to the protection of sovereign rights of independent nations and to the respect of cultures and traditions.

"But there is no respect of other cultures by pretending to work in good faith to establish such a mechanism that one has absolutely no intention of promoting, let alone upholding," Mr. Lapointe said, referring to the objectives of the United States, New Zealand and Britain to undermine the efforts of the RMS Working Group.

Australia and the United States have often stated their opposition to commercial whaling, while New Zealand and Britain have openly said they would support the RMS only if the moratorium could remain in place.1

"How could someone, in all decency, pretend to work in good faith for the development of a mechanism aiming to achieve an objective to which they strongly oppose?"

"The United States, New Zealand and Britain are saying on the one hand, 'we will work faithfully for the development of the RMS', while saying on the other hand, 'we will work towards promoting and supporting whale sanctuaries and maintaining the moratorium'."

"The Revised Management Scheme, allowing for the re-opening of commercial whaling, and the moratorium, prohibiting any hunting of whales, are mutually exclusive. You can't have one with the other," Mr. Lapointe said.

"At least Australia had the decency and intellectual honesty to withdraw from participating in the RMS Working Group because of its absolute opposition to commercial whaling. But the US, New Zealand and Britain have all remained in the group despite their obvious conflicts of interest. These three countries have every intention of voting against the very RMS they helped develop at the IWC meeting."

"The implementation of the RMS will bring about sustainable whaling. There will never be a return to the industrial whaling carried out by Britain, the United States, New Zealand and other countries again". However, despite the bad faith of these countries, the RMS will be implemented and the whaling moratorium will be lifted in a short time, Mr. Lapointe predicted.

For more information and interviews, contact Eugene Lapointe
Email: iwmc@iwmc.org

Back to Top