Alaska: Where was ICC at the IWC?

SIKU CIRCUMPOLAR NEWS SERVICE

The annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission ended last month in Berlin, Germany on a sour note, leaving Inuit who attended the meeting wondering why the Inuit Circumpolar Conference was absent.

“It is necessary to have good Inuit lobbying during the meeting, where people who are against whale hunting are winning more and more for their interests, and making it more difficult to be a whale hunter in the Arctic,” said George Ahmaogak, mayor of Barrow, Alaska.

Ahmaogak criticized the Inuit Circumpolar Conference for not helping to defend the rights of whaling nations and peoples at the meeting.

“We need all the assistance we can get. Although I have a lot of respect for ICC, and maybe they had economic reasons for not coming to IWC, I think it’s a critical time,” Ahmaogak said.

A Canadian anti-whaling organization, the Canadian Marine Environment Protection Society, attended the Berlin IWC conference to lobby against Nunavut’s limited bowhead hunt.

It distributed a report written by James Hrynyshyn, a former News North reporter and editor, that suggests Nunavut’s bowhead hunt may be unsustainable.

At the conclusion of the conference, a declaration was signed condemning nations found whaling for scientific purposes. Delegates also decided to establish a special committee on whale conservation.

The 50-person delegation from Japan walked out of the meeting at this point. Japan was seeking to increase the number of whales it hunts for scientific purposes.

A resolution also passed asking Japan to stop whaling near Antarctica.

The High North Alliance, a pro-whaling Norway-based lobby group, said one-third of the IWC members want to seriously consider managing whaling outside of the IWC.

One alternative would be to establish regional organizations, such as the North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission (NAMMCO), which includes the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland and Norway.

Japan is ready to withdraw its support from the IWC.

“Have we lost patience with the commission? Yes and no. We are an Asian country, so we’re very patient. But we are also very angry. If there’s no progress we must use other options, including withdrawing from the commission,” said Masayuki Komatsu, head of Japan’s delegation and a senior official official in Japan’s Fisheries Agency.

Komatsu said Japan might also decide to stop paying its membership fees. Japan and the U.S. are the IWC’s two biggest supporters financially.

The next IWC annual meeting will be held next July in Sorrento, in southern Italy.