§ Sir Geoffrey PattieTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what was the outcome of the International Whaling Commission's 46th annual meeting.
§ Mr. JackThe International Whaling Commission's 46th annual meeting was held at Puerto Vallarta, Mexico from 23–27 May. The United Kingdom delegation was composed of officials from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, assisted by officials from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department of the Environment and representatives of environmental organisations.
The principal achievement of the meeting was the creation of a circumpolar Southern Ocean sanctuary for whales, within which commercial whaling will be banned indefinitely. The northern boundary of the sanctuary is 40 deg south except in the eastern Pacific, between 130 deg west and 50 deg west, where it is 60 deg south; in addition, below the existing Indian Ocean sanctuary the boundary is 55 deg south, the southern boundary of that sanctuary, so that the two sanctuaries do not overlap.
The new sanctuary will cover the main feeding grounds of all southern ocean baleen whales, including those populations of fin and sei whales that feed between 60 deg 576W south and 40 deg south of the south Atlantic and western Pacific. There are few records of whale activity in the same latitudes in the eastern Pacific, which for this reason fall outside the sanctuary.
The creation of a Southern Ocean sanctuary represents a major step forward for the conservation of whales. It ensures that should the current moratorium on commercial whaling ever be lifted, the whale stocks in the Southern Ocean will remain protected. I am pleased to say that the United Kingdom delegation played a prominent role in devising the proposal which was ultimately adopted.
At the meeting, we restated the United Kingdom's continuing strong support for the moratorium. We accordingly voted against a request by Japan for an interim quota of 50 minke whales, to be taken by traditional whaling communities. This proposal was defeated and I am pleased to report that the moratorium remains intact.
Some progress was made on the revised management procedure, a key element in the proposed revised management scheme. The IWC's scientific committee reported that it had completed its work on the RMP, which it recommended for adoption. This was consistent with the remit it was given, when the moratorium was agreed, to devise new management procedures. In response to this recommendation, a resolution was adopted accepting that the scientific committee's work on the RMP completes the main scientific component in the development of the RMS, but making it clear that the RMP cannot be formally adopted in advance of the RMS. The resolution also emphasises that nothing it contains justifies any activity that is contrary to the moratorium.
The United Kingdom played an active role in the preparation of this resolution, which meets our own key requirements. In particular, it states clearly that the RMP will not be adopted in advance of the RMS and sets out the elements that will have to be satisfactorily included in the RMS before it can be considered for adoption. A good deal of work on these will be required. In this context, we attach particular importance to the securing of a fully effective, enforceable and internationally credible inspection and observation scheme that would ensure that any whaling operations in the future are properly controlled. Without such measures, it would not be possible for the United Kingdom to support any form of RMS.
We once again reaffirmed the importance we attached to ensuring that any whales taken in whaling operations are killed humanely. Together with New Zealand, we secured the adoption of a resolution criticising the use of the electric lance as a method of secondary killing. This drew on new research which strongly suggests that the electric lance is both ineffective and cruel. The resolution calls on Governments using this technique to develop alternative methods of secondary killing and requests the IWC to look into the matter again next year, in the light of the advice of the forthcoming workshop on humane killing. The meeting also agreed the terms of reference we proposed for this workshop, which will meet immediately before next year's annual meeting.
Last year, United Kingdom proposals on whale watching were accepted by the IWC. These led to the production of a useful report on the economic importance of whale watching. In the light of this report, the United Kingdom was able to secure support for a further proposal, which was adopted by consensus, requiring the IWC and its scientific committee to provide advice to national 577W Governments on whale watching and to keep developments under review. This will ensure that the IWC has a permanent role to play in this expanding new industry.
It was agreed that two scientific workshops on environmental threats, dealing with the potential effects of pollution and of climate change, should be held over the next two year's. We took a prominent role in the discussion of these issues in the scientific committee, and helped promote a resolution underlining the importance that the IWC attaches to the impact on whale stocks.
During the meeting, the United Kingdom delegation expressed concern about reports of illegal international trade in whale meat, and supported a successful resolution calling on all members to ensure that existing restrictions on trade in whale meat and whale products were strictly enforced and asking Governments to report all attempted evasions to the IWC.
The United Kingdom delegation also took the opportunity to criticise strongly Norway's decision to resume commercial whaling and to urge the Norwegian Government to reconsider. We were supported by a number of other delegations.
Overall, this was a very successful meeting for the United Kingdom. We achieved all our main objectives and made useful progress on a range of issues. I believe that we are now well placed to make further progress at the IWC's 47th annual meeting in Dublin next year.
The IWC remains the only effective world forum for the discussion of whaling issues; it continues to operate as a result of those countries who wish to remain its members.
Warning Letters Issued by Region and Nationally for each quarter from April 1990 to March 1992 April to June 1990 July to September 1990 October to December 1990 January to March 10 April to June 1991 July to September 1991 October to December 1991 January to March 1991 Northern 789 731 695 394 365 697 438 403 Yorks and Humberside 714 476 637 398 403 394 359 312 East Midlands and Eastern 463 447 453 338 337 272 225 242 London and South Eastern 3,024 2,941 2,339 1,895 1,484 1,830 1,653 1,839 South Western 530 716 533 400 371 276 273 354 Wales 688 464 386 311 309 185 232 206 West Midlands 1,354 1,015 853 634 561 707 606 567 North Western 1,435 1,521 1,247 1,032 1,123 1,061 1,382 1,671 Scotland 2,234 2,149 1,623 1,001 1,022 1,134 794 1,010 Great Britain 11,231 10,730 8,766 6,403 5,975 6,556 5,962 6,604
Warning Letters Issued by Region and Nationally for each quarter from April 1992 to March 1994 April to June 1992 July to September 1992 October to December 1992 January to March 1993 April to June 1993 July to September 1993 October to December 1993 January to March 1994 Northern 300 290 163 185 124 142 164 251 Yorks and Humberside 282 292 166 163 140 107 82 83 East Midlands and Eastern 203 202 78 98 160 139 121 35 London and South Eastern 2,126 2,250 1,758 1,515 1,007 935 682 692 Southwestern 406 388 271 349 228 369 390 555 Wales 233 183 71 72 41 31 38 69 West Midlands 619 486 235 190 153 144 170 261 Northwestern 1,678 2,006 1,510 1,057 601 344 206 208 Scotland 887 612 337 363 217 98 44 76 Great Britain 6,734 6,709 4,589 3,992 2,671 2,309 1,897 2,230