Washington, DC, 22 June 2004:  IWMC condemns the United States for using an obsolete piece of legislation today to certify Iceland for catching a small number of minke whales, the second most abundant species of whale in the world. 

Commerce Secretary Donald Evans has written to President Bush certifying Iceland under the so-called Pelly Amendment, a legislative instrument that can be used to invoke trade sanctions against nations under certain circumstances.  Last year, Iceland caught 36 minke whales and this year it has announced plans to take another 25 under a scientific research program.  The International Whaling Commission (IWC) has estimated the local population of minke whales in Iceland’s coastal waters at 43,000 and the world population at around 1 million.  

IWMC President, Eugene Lapointe, said:  “With the United States hunting a larger number of the endangered bowhead whales, it is very odd that it should certify against Iceland for taking such a small number of the plentiful minke whale.  People who live in glass houses shouldn’t be throwing rocks.”  Under IWC rules, Alaskan natives are permitted to take up to 67 bowhead whales each year out of a local population of around 9,000.  Both hunts are carried out in a sustainable way, which means that they do not reduce the overall populations stocks.  

IWMC has discovered that the United States action has been driven by two departmental officials who are ideologically opposed to all whaling.  Rolland (Rollie) Schmitten, a Director at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the Commerce Department and Jean-Pierre Ple, Oceans Affairs officer at the Department of State, spent several months trying to gain authorization for the move against Iceland.  Mr. Schmitten acts as the United States Commissioner to the IWC.  

Iceland is permitted to hunt whales for research purposes under Article 8 of the International Convention on the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW), the 1946 treaty that established the IWC.  IWMC has learnt that when officials in the State and Commerce departments expressed doubts about the legality of certifying Iceland, Schmitten and Ple turned to the Council on Environmental Quality, a little known office of the White House, to back the moves.  

Under the Pelly Amendment process, President Bush has rejected trade sanctions against Iceland, a move that would have risked provoking a response under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.  Such an action could also have involved Norway, Japan and Denmark, whose nationals lawfully harvest minke whales.  

Mr. Lapointe said:  “It is the United States, not Iceland, that is diminishing the effectiveness of the IWC because it doggedly refuses to sign up to a management system that would limit and regulate commercial whaling.”  

For further information, contact Eugène Lapointe
Florida: +1(727) 734-4949 or email: iwmc@iwmc.org