Commission bans bowhead whaling in Russia and Alaska

Next year, when Inuit in Alaska and Chukotka begin their annual bowhead whale hunt, this traditional activity may not be legal anymore.

Last week, the International Whaling Commission, the management group that determines worldwide quotas for large whales, refused to renew Alaska and Chukotka’s quotas for the traditional whale hunt.

“For our indigenous people, this day is the equivalent of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks,” a Chukotkan delegate told reporters at the annual IWC meeting, held in the ancient whaling port of Shimonoseki, Japan.

This is the first time the IWC has refused to renew aboriginal quotas since the first whaling quotas were imposed in the 1970s.

“In the history of the IWC, it was the most unjust, unkind and unfair vote that was ever taken,” said Rolland Schmitten, head of the U.S. delegation to the IWC meeting. “That vote literally denied people to feed their families.”

Chukotkans were seeking an annual quota of five bowhead whales, while Inupiat on the North Slope were asking for 56 a year.

Last year, the North Slope’s 10 Inupiat villages landed 49 bowhead.

“Whale provides a lot of nutritional needs for our people, and once we lose that we’re in bad shape,” said George Ahmaogak, mayor of North Slope Borough and secretary of the Alaskan Eskimo Whaling Commission, at a press conference in Shimonoseki.

Normally, the IWC renews quotas by consensus and with little fanfare. But this year, Japan called for a vote on the renewal request.

Japan’s delegation was angered because the IWC denied it a quota of 50 minke whales for its whaling communities and refused to discuss a new whale management scheme.

“We were right in the middle of a political football game,” Ahmaogak said.

A revised proposal for the renewal of the quotas for Alaska and Russia was also later defeated.

Japan withdrew its support from this proposal at the last minute, after the IWC rejected a revised bid that would have allowed Japan to hunt 25 minke whales.

Japan says eating whale is an important part of its cultural heritage. Nearly 50 per cent of its meat came from whale before 1945.

Japan abandoned commercial whaling in 1986 to comply with the IWC moratorium on all commercial whaling, but its fishermen still carry out what Japan calls “scientific research whaling,” killing 260 large whales a year, and whale meat still ends up in high-end stores and restaurants.

“They talk about Inuit needs,” Japanese Fisheries Agency official Masayikiu Komatsu said outside the meeting. “What about the needs of our whaling communities?”

In another vote at the end of IWC meeting, Chukotka was granted a five-year quota of 600 gray whales. The U.S. Makah Tribe also received a quota of 20 gray whales over the next five years.

Greenland’s quotas were also renewed. In 2001, Greenlanders caught eight fin whales and 159 minke whales.

But Japan and some other pro-whaling groups don’t like the nature of the qualifications for the aboriginal whale hunt because they exclude many longtime whaling people, such as the Faroese, Icelanders and Japanese from whaling.

Some suggested pro-whaling IWC members should have supported Japan’s proposal for a limited commercial hunt, but they were more interested in seeking revenge against Japan for past wrongs than supporting aboriginal whalers.

Complicating the situation at the IWC are non-whaling, land-locked member countries like Switzerland and Mongolia that can also vote on IWC proposals. These countries often have anti-whaling agendas or are open to having their votes swayed.

In 1946, Canada was one of the founding members of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, which created the IWC.

But Canada left the IWC in 1981, shortly before the IWC imposed a ban on commercial whaling. Because Canada is not a member of the IWC, its decisions don’t affect the future of the Nunavut bowhead hunt.

“We’re smarter than the rest,” said Nunavut Wildlife Management Board chairman Ben Kovic.

Canada still attends IWC meetings as a non-voting observer, although anti-whaling members have called Canada a “pirate whaler.” In 1996, the IWC passed a resolution condemning Canada’s bowhead hunt in the Western and Eastern Arctic.

But Canada maintains it fulfills international law by participating in the scientific arm of the IWC and through its land claim deals and co-management groups.

Kovic suggested the U.S. and Russia could leave the IWC in protest, join Canada, and permit the bowhead hunt in their countries to proceed.

Even if these countries stay with the IWC, Kovic doesn’t see an end to the traditional bowhead hunt among the Yupik and Inupiat.

“My thinking is they’re going to go ahead. I would be surprised if the governments stopped it,” Kovic said.

Inupiat whalers have already vowed they will not stop whaling.

“We will work with the U.S. and the whaling communities to take the necessary steps to protect and continue the way of life that our elders have taught to us,” Ahmaogak said in a written statement issued last week from Japan.