| Paper presented at the
Symposium "High Sea Fisheries and International Fishery Management
Organization", under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
of Japan and the Association for
Comparative Study of Legal Cultures March
9, 2001, Tokyo. |
The focus of this paper will be the International
Whaling Convention. I am sure there is no disagreement with my view that
the current situation is chaotic and totally antagonistic to the terms
agreed to in 1946- "to provide for the proper conservation of whale
stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling
industry". This paper will attempt to address how we reached our
present state and assess the possibility of constructive actions to restore
the effectiveness of the Convention.
As a biologist- not a lawyer, and certainly not an international
diplomat, I must turn to my initial training as an evolutionist to develop
an understanding of the present by examining both the past and the current
state of other treaties and laws. I recognize my perspective is as much
influenced by being a biologist as it is by my nationality, however, all of
the treaties and laws I will discuss involve living resources, and, like it
or not, the impact of my nation’s activities on such resources has a
major impact on the ecosystem we share.
I would like to discuss two treaties- the International Pacific Halibut
Convention and the North Pacific Fur Seal Convention, along with four
United States laws: The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), The
Marine Mammal Protection Act(MMPA), The Endangered Species Act(ESA) , and
the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act(FCMA) and how
their implementation over time has evolved within the changing scientific
and political ecosystem. I will then apply this discussion to IWC in an
attempt to both improve our understanding, especially vis-a-vis the
relationships between Japan and the United States, and suggest a way out of
our current dilemma. There will be no "magic bullet" or a really
novel solution , in fact, the chance of success is enhanced because it has
been used: it has worked and we know how to implement the proposal. |
