§ Mr. CawseyTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the meeting of commissioners to the International Whaling Commission of 5 February; and what discussion took place on the resumption of commercial whaling in relation to(a) species of whale and (b) countries eligible to resume whaling. [78485]
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§ Mr. MorleyThe meeting to which the hon. Member refers was an informal meeting attended by a number of countries generally opposed to whaling; its principal purpose was to discuss how the countries concerned could best co-operate at the forthcoming International Whaling Commission annual meeting in Grenada in May. There was some discussion of the proposals put forward by Ireland for a complete and permanent ban on all high seas412W whaling, including scientific whaling, with some limited whaling permitted in individual country's coastal waters; it was generally agreed that these were unlikely to make any progress unless Japan was ready to consider ending its scientific whaling programme. The UK made it clear that, while we supported efforts to improve whale conservation, we continued to have serious reservations about some aspects of the Irish proposals, in particular those concerning coastal whaling.