This statement, at first hearing, probably will sting Japanese ears because, for years, this nation has been at the vanguard of the sustainable use movement as it sought global acceptance for its sustainable use of cetacean resources.

Given the intense, and personal hostility that the US, Australian and most European governments have adopted towards Japan, and the bombast in which they have engaged, on the whaling issue, how can I conceivably assert that these governments support sustainable use? My answer is that we should judge a government not by what it says, but by what it does and I repeat, all of these governments support and practice sustainable use. Australia may show up to annual meetings of the International Whaling Commission and berate Japan and its allies for refusing to give in to Canberra's bullying but, simultaneously, back home it slaughters millions of native kangaroos each year, both for human consumption and pet food. Some may choose to paint this as hypocrisy. I prefer to say simply that this is sustainable use in action. Australians get their kangaroo meat; the sport industry gets one of the best hide for sport shoes, Fido gets his dog food and the kangaroo population does not expand beyond a level that the land can support.

But consider the United States of America. When you look at this enormous country, that huge tracts of the western and southern states are a veritable hunter's paradise with wild deer, boar, elk, bear and a host of wild bird all ready to fall to the hunter's gun. From Alaska to Florida the country boasts thriving recreational fisheries. In states such as Pennsylvania, schools and businesses commonly close on the first day of the state's deer hunting season, such is the prevalence of deer hunting. This clearly is a nation that respects and practices the principle of the sustainable use of wildlife and woe betide the aspiring politician who forgets this.

The national organizations of hunters and fishermen are some of the most potent political forces in the country and they expect that their desire to continue to hunt, trap and fish in the same manner as their fathers and grandfathers will be heeded and respected at the highest level of the national government. Consider that, during last year's Presidential election, the nominee of the Democratic Party, by far the more urban of the two major parties, nonetheless never seemed to miss an opportunity to be photographed, shotgun in hand, ready to send wild quail to the cooking pot. The candidate who courted the support of Greenpeace, the Sierra Club and the Humane Society of the United States nevertheless wanted to spread the word that he was pro-hunting and pro-sustainable use, no matter what some of his more extreme friends in the NGO community might say.