Whaling Commission Proposal Would Allow Hunting With Annual Quotas

The International Whaling Commission has unveiled a proposal that would authorize commercial whaling for the first time in 25 years in exchange for strict quotas, a plan its leaders hope will satisfy opponents of whaling and the nations that still hunt whales. The plan would allow Japan, Norway, and Iceland — which have continued to hunt despite an international moratorium passed in 1986 — to hunt whales for 10 years and would impose specific annual catch limits on various species, including a quota of 69 bowhead whales, 145 grey whales, 14 humpbacks, and 109 fin whales. In Japan, the self-imposed annual quota of 935 Antarctic minke whales would be reduced to 400 over the next five years, and then cut to 200 in the ensuing five years. The international whaling group hopes that imposing limits will allow it to control the limited whale hunting that has continued despite the 1986 ban. The proposal will be debated at the IWC’s general meeting in Morocco in June. Environmental advocates warned that the compromise could eventually lead to the return of full-scale industrial whaling. “At the moment, it appears that the whales are making all the concessions, not the whalers,” said Junichi Sato, director of Greenpeace Japan.