§ Mr. HardyTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the statistics on which calculations in support of whaling were based; and if he will oppose both scientific whaling and whaling carried out on the grounds that the present levels of population justify this activity. [27911]
§ Mr. JackAs the Government have frequently stated, the United Kingdom will not even contemplate voting to lift the current moratorium on commercial whaling until stocks are shown to be at healthy levels, fully effective procedures for managing whale stocks are in place which include ways of ensuring that the rules are observed, and methods used to take whales are humane. Management procedures would also need to include rules for conducting surveys and for verifying abundance estimates to ensure that estimates of whale numbers were reliable. As indicated in the reply to the hon. Member for Erewash (Mrs. Knight) on 6 June,Official Report, columns 4-6, this is not always the case with existing estimates. The reply in question also made clear the United Kingdom's opposition to scientific whaling.