IWMC  World Conservation Trust

The Editor
Miami Herald
One Herald Plaza
Miami, FL 33132-1693

10 April 2001

Keep whaling free of trade politics

Professor Feldman’s analysis of the U.S. position with Japan on whaling (5 April 2001) is entertaining but it is based on some misconceptions.

True, there is no sizeable whaling industry in Japan and that the supply of whale meat in the Japanese market was reduced by the moratorium on commercial whaling. However, this lack of economic muscle is hardly a good reason for Japan to sacrifice what is left of this industry on the grounds of international political expediency.

Japanese policy is driven by the principle that scientific evidence and objective facts should be the basis of deciding whether, and to what extent, particular resources can be utilized in a sustainable manner. Such a philosophy will appeal to many economists, if not Professor Feldman.

The Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) has never considered Bryde’s, sperm and minke whales as endangered. As with many of the decisions and resolutions of the IWC, such as the establishment of whale sanctuaries, the zero catch limit was set for political reasons , not economic or scientific reasons.

Similarly, most of the world’s countries now support the sustainable utilization of whales.

More than half of the countries that attended the latest meetings of CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) supported the ‘downlisting’ of the minke whale to the category allowing controlled international trade.

Japan’s whalers are not huge industrial concerns, but just like the Inupiat Eskimos in Alaska, who receive U.S. federal support to hunt bowhead whales (on the grounds that they are engaging in "subsistence whaling"), Japanese communities have deep-rooted traditions centered on whaling. In several regions of Japan whale meat constitutes an indispensable part of local diet and culture and it would be wrong for Tokyo to turn its back on these regions, peoples and lifestyles.

Professor Feldman doubts whether the IWC can be "reinvented" to set, monitor and enforce catch limits for whales like the abundant minke.

In fact, it could do just this if the U.S. and other nations would cooperate with countries such as Japan, Norway and Russia who want to undertake sustainable commercial whaling. Indeed, the chairman of the Scientific Committee resigned in protest in 1993 because the regulatory regime his committee had carefully and painstakingly drafted was blocked by the U.S. and others for political reasons.

The sustainable management of these marine resources is within our grasp and presents a more hopeful scenario than the current status quo, which Professor Feldman describes as a "constant diplomatic irritant". This frustration is felt by Japanese, as well as Americans.

What we can agree on is that it does not make economic sense for whaling to become a tool of trade policy.

Kind regards,

Eugene Lapointe
IWMC President
Former Secretary General of CITES (1982-1990)

Promoting the Sustainable Use of Wild Resources
- Whether Terrestrial or Aquatic
- as a Conservation Mechanism