Japan Packs the International Whaling Commission for a Majority Vote on a Return to Commercial Whaling

Names of nations that are noted (by mainstream news media) as definitely voting to return to whaling are in bold bright red in list below.  Israel is printed in green for having joined the IWC this year, but voting no on a return to commercial whaling.  China is blue for abstaining, not helping at all.

Commercial whaling cannot return until 75% of the IWC approve its reinstatement, but for the first time a majority of the Commission has voted to drop the world wide ban.

Japan itself has continued 'scientific whaling' and Norway has ignored the ban.

Pro-whalers say the creatures reduce fish stocks, but conservationist say that's like blaming the woodpeckers for the decline of the forest.  Overfishing is the true cause of the decline in fish populations.

The nastiness of the pro-walers' politics in the commission is reminiscent of American politics and other dealings with matters important to Big Business.

They shouted "sore losers" at anti-whaling delegates after the vote.  A spokesman said the fact that pro whalers got a majority, though clearly nowhere near the 75% supermajority needed, showed that the anti-whalers needed to start compromising though they never explained why.  Typical big business politics.

Pro-whaling seems to have at least one blogger supporter.   You know the story. Repeat, repeat, repeat.  Catapult the propaganda.  I'm sure the right wing bloggers will suddenly find pro-whaling is a new cause now.

Others involved in Japanese whaling 'research' show some of Karl Rove's spirit.  A Japanese whaling 'researcher' called a BBC report on the selling of whale meat as dog food "irresponsible" though the report was actually true.  Fortunately, the BBC is tough enough to continue reporting on the whaling industry in Japan, letting us know that the price of whale meat is going down because younger people do not like the taste, at the same time that the Japanese govt claims to "need to increase research" of the animals.

Interestingly, a vote this week on taking smaller whales, porpoises, and dolphins out of consideration by the IWC failed to win even a majority.

Still I believe boycotting would be especially effective on smaller tropical nations being bribed by the whaling states.  For many of them the biggest industry is tourism.  To notify the governments of such countries that you won't be taking any vacations on their shores until their nation stops being a tool of the whaling nation, and especially cancelling vacations already planned to such nations should be very effective. 

Also, tell your friends, about the nations that now are supporting a return to whaling and how you would feel if someone continued to support such nations with tourism dollars.

International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw) spokesman Joth Singh said:  "It is clear that the intent is for the IWC to revert back to a whalers' club, which is what it was up to the 1970s,".

An MSNBC article on the subject notes that Japan now intends to start hunt... er... researching Humpback whales. 

Australia’s minister for the environment, Ian Campbell, said “The anger expressed by the world when they see the first humpback hauled on board of a Japanese whaling ship will make my job a lot easier,”

In this age of  corporate owned news media?  I'm not so sure.  President Bush will wiggle his hips or something and the world news will be all agog over that for weeks.  Humpbacks being killed?  What Humpbacks being killed?

How many have heard that the US Military is doing to Ramadi right now what it did to Fallujah twice earlier?

Sound of crickets chirping.  Whoa, was that a tumbleweed that just went by?

BTW, other news shows Japan attacking the US for sponsoring support of "aboriginal whaling" in small numbers.  I guess deep in their hearts they belive that if the Indians, Inuits, and natives of other lands, can take a few whales, why can't Japanese Big Business finish off the world's supply?  Sob.  We're just so prejudiced against those poor fat cat whalers, aren't we?

I am trying to find a complete list of all the nations that voted for a return to commercial whaling.  So far I have not been able to find a news article with the list, but I did find some clues:

• Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Guinea, Morocco, Panama, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St Kitts and Nevis and the Solomon Islands. Each of these countries has also sided with Japan in each IWC vote since 2001. (That being said only   (Panama has been reported as voting against removing the whalingban this weekend, though.  I guess swimming in the pro-whaling cesspool got to be too much for them.)  So who knows where the best beach hotels in Panama are?  (Also I would like to note that only those nations in the above list who drafted the "St Kitts and Nevis resolution" are proven to have voted for it. Beside St Kitt and Nevis, those would be St Lucia, St Vincent, Grenada, Dominica and Antigua.  Before making a decision on the other nations mentioned at the top of this list item you might want to call their government and make sure of their position on whaling.
  
• Also noted in a report, Denmark, Russia, Norway, Iceland and, of course, Japan voted to favor a return to commercial whaling.  .
  
• Radio New Zealand reports: the IWC Pacific members of Solomon Islands, Nauru, Kiribati, Tuvalu, the Marshall Islands, and Palau
• A blog at the Guardian adds Mali and Mongolia as voting on the pro-whaling side.
• A Sydney Morning Herald report adds Guatemala, and Cambodia as pro whaling members
• The Taipei Times (in the best report on Japan's use of bribery that I've seen) noted on June 2, 2006 before this current  meeting of the IWC began that:  Japan is also known to have increased aid to countries such as Belize, Mali [(noted above)], Togo, Gambia and others which have joined the IWC recently but who have so far not voted.  Aid from Japan is not proof of support of the recent whaling measure (see about Panama above, but might give a good indication.
• The Australian notes: the late arrival yesterday of the pro-whaling delegation from Senegal,...helped swing the vote ...
• Of the 4 new members in the last year it has been noted in a few places that only Israel came in against a return to whaling.  Thanks to our bros and sisters in that nation.
• Many reports note that China abstained.  Yeah, thanks for little help, buddy.  Remind us to ask ourselves why we buy your cheaply made goods again?

The Dominion Post as found in an article at Stuff.nz reports: The meeting... has been marked by intense lobbying and suggestions of questionable practices, with African nations aligned with Japan paying membership fees at the 11th hour to allow them to vote, one with a brown paper bag filled with United States currency.

Okay, so far I've found 29 nations who are likely  (or proven) to have voted for removing the whaling ban..  The IWC membership list is here

Possibly more important than a vote that wouldn't truly overturn the ban on whaling yet, is a vote today on whether to ban NGOs from observing whale "research".  This would make it a criminal act for Greenpeace to do what it has been doing for years.

And how lovely that no mainstream (corporate supported) news will give us a complete list of the vote which was specifically voted on to be public?

tags: natives  conservation  whales  japan  media  nevis  whaling  iwc  st  kitts  

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