The CITES
- IWC Connection
If delegates to the 52nd Meeting of the International Whaling Commission heed the clear message sent by the Secretariat and delegates to the 11th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) this past April at UNEP headquarters in Gigiri, Kenya, the on-going impasse over completion and adoption of the Revised Management Plan (RMP) and Revised Management Scheme (RMS) will soon be broken. Not only is the welfare of the world’s whale stocks at stake, but also the credibility and effectiveness of IWC as an international regulatory body will be jeopardized by continued inaction. IWC Secretary Dr. Ray Gambell underscored that point when he was quoted by the press as saying, “If the Commission cannot set its house in order, people will start to ask: ‘why do we need it at all?’” Dr. Gambell’s concern is that unless the management plan is completed, adopted and put into effect within the next year or no later than CITES COP 12 in two years, IWC will lose all effective control over the management of whales and whaling. At Gigiri, approximately 100 nations refrained from key votes on the CITES – IWC relationship in deference to IWC, a clear signal that they are withholding judgment on the correctness of CITES stepping in and making regulatory calls on whales and whaling absent action by IWC. Reports from the May 30th meeting in Austria of 16 nations including the United States, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, France, Italy, Brazil, Argentina, the Netherlands, Monaco and others “like-minded” in their opposition to the timely and needed finalization of the IWC management program confirm that the CITES – IWC relationship is of vital concern. Those same reports indicate that these “like-minded” delegations fully intend to enact a strategy that gives CITES delegates the “appearance” of IWC action but will in fact continue to stall real progress for “years, not days or months.” Such a deceptive strategy must not be allowed to succeed for the sake
of the whales, the IWC or the environment. IWMC intends to do its
part to see that the obstructionist tactics of do-nothing delegations and
their NGO colleagues do not carry this or any other day.
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Appeals
Court Temporarily
Halts Makah Whale Hunt Citing its opinion that the National Marine Fisheries Service failed to produce an adequate environmental impact study (EIS) prior to allowing the Makah Indian gray whale hunt, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court’s refusal to stop the hunt. Republican Congressman Jack Metcalf filed the appeal citing fear that the Makah hunt would open commercial whaling throughout the globe as his motivation. Rep. Metcalf’s convoluted and wrong-headed thinking could be seen in a statement he made to News Agency: “You’d have Japan and Norway, which are pirating whales as we speak, as well as other nations that aren’t whaling, that could have the right to kill whales.” In the United States, conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats often are used by animal rights groups to further their non-use agenda. The Makah people, who resumed their ancient whaling tradition last year after a 70-year hiatus caused by exploitation of gray whales by industrial nations seeking whale oil, ceded their lands on Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula in 1855 in return for treaty rights to hunt and fish for whales and other marine mammals. Currently stock populations of the Eastern Pacific gray whale far exceed the numbers of their species that traveled between the Bering Sea and Mexico’s Baja Peninsula prior to the industrial whaling that first targeted the bottom feeding cetaceans around the time the Makah’s signed their treaty. Whale biologists put the current Eastern Pacific gray whale population at 23,000, a figure many say is too great for the biological carrying capacity of the whale’s feeding grounds. While the Makah’s are confident that their whaling efforts will resume
once the new EIS is completed, perhaps they might discuss the possibility
of charging the U.S. government with breach of contract with Rep. Metcalf
and his animal rights pals and see what they would have to say about returning
the Makah’s lands.›
Thank You,
Dr. Ray Gambell During his 24 years as a vital component of the International Whaling Commission’s Executive Management Team, Dr. Ray Gambell has become known to past and current IWC Commissioners, to representatives of the various NGOs and to the IWC staff as a gentleman, statesman, and repository of scientific and institutional knowledge without peer. His vast intellect, expansive good humor and over-riding sense of fair play, respect and dignity mark not only his tenure with IWC but also as a man. For your dedication, expertise, courteousness, friendship, and diplomacy in administering all aspects of IWC business, you have earned the respect of IWMC – World Conservation Trust and all those involved with and whose lives are affected by IWC. We bid you good fortune in all future endeavors. You will be missed!
Makah Whaling
Critic Pleads Guilty Erin Abbott, 23, a self-styled “whale savior” and critic of the Makah Nation’s cultural and treaty right to hunt gray whales, pled guilty Friday, June 9, to a charge of “gross negligent operation of a vessel.” The charge carries a maximum sentence of one year in jail and $100,000. Despite the fact that Ms. Abbott used a jet-ski watercraft in an attempt to swamp the thin Makah log whaling canoe and possibly injure or kill one of the whalers, few believe her sentence will be more than a light tap on the wrist. During the incident last April, Ms. Abbott was attempting a second pass at the canoe when a U.S. Coast Guard inflatable craft sped to protect the Makah’s and inadvertently collided with her jet ski breaking Ms. Abbott’s shoulder. The harassment of the Makah’s by animal rights activists is reminiscent of equally vehement harassment of African Americans by other self righteous racist/supremacists during the Civil Rights era in the 1960s.› 
CITES, the IWC's Survival Kit! But, for how long? General Information
IWMC - Promoting the Sustainable Use of Wild Resources - Whether Terrestrial or Aquatic - as a Conservation Mechanism |
