International Whaling Commission (Hansard, 6 June 1995)

§ Mr. Jack

The International Whaling Commission's 47th annual meeting was held in Dublin from 29 May to 2 June. The UK 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. For the UK, the meeting was a satisfactory one, and we achieved virtually all our objectives. The meeting confirmed that the IWC remains the only effective international body for the conservation and protection of whales.

I am pleased to report that the moratorium on commercial whaling, which has been in force since 1985–86, remains in force and unweakened. A request by Japan for an interim quota of 50 minke whales, to be taken by its coastal communities, was once again rejected.

At last year's IWC meeting doubts were raised about the estimate of minke whale numbers in the north-east Atlantic produced by Norwegian scientists, and endorsed by the IWC's scientific committee as the best figures available. Detailed discussions on this complex issue took place over the year, but this year's meeting of the scientific committee was unable to resolve the differing views and concluded that there was currently no valid estimate for this stock. Despite this uncertainty about the number of minke whales present in the north-east Atlantic, Norway restarted its commercial whaling operations on 2 May.

At the meeting of the IWC itself, Norway's behaviour was widely condemned. A strongly-worded resolution was adopted calling on Norway to reconsider its objection to the moratorium, under which it is legally able to continue commercial whaling, and to halt its whaling activities immediately. In supporting this resolution, we made it clear that we deplored Norway's continued refusal to observe the moratorium, which in our view weakened the credibility of the IWC.

At the meeting, very widespread concern was also expressed about scientific whaling. A resolution was adopted calling for all scientific whaling within IWC sanctuaries and, in particular, the southern ocean sanctuary, to be halted. The IWC also adopted a general resolution on scientific whaling, initiated and introduced by the UK, which called for research on whales to be conducted, in principle, by non-lethal means, with the killing of whales for research purposes permitted only in the most exceptional circumstances. The resolution also requested the IWC's scientific committee to review all existing, and future, programmes for research involving the killing of whales against these criteria. This resolution received a very wide measure of support. Although it will not prevent countries from authorising scientific whaling, since this is expressly provided for under the IWC's parent treaty, it will enable the IWC in future to reach clear conclusions on whether it considers any lethal research to be justifiable and to condemn unnecessary scientific whaling.

Little progress was made on the revised management scheme, which is being devised to regulate all aspects of any future commercial whaling which might be permitted in the future. Discussion concentrated on the inspection and observation scheme which will be needed, as part of the RMS, to ensure that any new rules are properly observed. Positions on this scheme remain far apart; we are continuing to insist that the RMS must include a fully effective, comprehensive and enforceable inspection and observation scheme.

The IWC meeting was preceded by a workshop on whale killing methods. The UK has consistently argued that if whales are to be killed, this is to be done humanely, and we were represented at the workshop by a strong team of scientists and veterinarians. The workshop agreed to a revision of the humane killing action plan agreed by the IWC in 1992, and this was subsequently adopted by the IWC itself.

A particular topic of discussion at the workshop was secondary killing methods and, most notably, the use of the electric lance to kill whales wounded, but not killed, by explosive harpoons. Papers presented to the workshop indicating that the electric lance is ineffective and inflicts unnecessary suffering received considerable support, although the workshop was not able to reach definitive conclusions on this issue. In these circumstances, we did not seek a vote on a proposal to ban the use of the electric lance, which would have required a three quarters majority to pass, which UK and New Zealand had put forward earlier; instead we introduced a resolution calling on the IWC to re-examine the issue next year, with a view to reaching a decision and urging all countries to suspend the use of the electric lance in the meantime. This was adopted with widespread support.

The UK delegation also put forward a resolution on killing methods used in the Faroese pilot whale drive hunt; this was adopted by consensus. This followed a discussion on this drive hunt in the workshop. The resolution encouraged the Faroese Government to continue work on introducing alternatives to the gaff and on other ways of improving the humaneness of the hunt. It is particularly helpful to have secured the commitment of the Faroese authorities to these improvements. Introducing this resolution, we emphasised our continuing concern at the welfare aspects of the drive hunt, and said that we hoped alternatives to the gaff would be introduced as soon as possible and the use of the gaff banned.

Environmental threats to whales and other cetaceans again received attention. The scientific committee reviewed the results of a workshop held in March on the possible effects of pollution on cetaceans, and confirmed arrangements for the forthcoming workshop on the possible implications of climate change. In the IWC meeting itself, we helped promote a resolution carrying forward the recommendations of the pollution workshop and urging Governments to send experts to the climate change workshop. This is an important new topic for the IWC, and we look forward to making further progress at next year's meeting.

At the meeting, the IWC made further progress on devising guidelines for whalewatching, another issue to which it will return next year, and adopted a resolution, following up the one it agreed last year, for improving mechanisms to prevent illegal trade in whale meat. This calls for stockpiles of whalemeat predating the moratorium to be disposed of domestically in the near 6W future, and encourages the development and use of DNA testing of whalemeat to establish the species of origin.

The IWC's 48th annual meeting will be held in Aberdeen next June. The UK will, once again, be playing an active role, and I believe that, as a result of this year's meeting, we are well placed to make further progress on a wide range of issues.