MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

WWF in Chile debates commercial whaling

Just moments before the start of a World Wildlife Fund conference on whale conservation, held in southern Chile's Region X, breaking news from Iceland caused a big splash: the Nordic country announced it will resume commercial whaling.

The 66-member International Whaling Commission (IWC) is sharply divided over the proposal to lift the 1986 ban on whale hunting. Exactly half supported the measure in a vote this June, with 32 voting no, including Chile, and one abstention.

In order for the ban to be lifted, the pro-whaling coalition, with Japan at its helm, would need the support of three-quarters of the IWC.

"That's not going to happen," said Chilean researcher Rodrigo Hucke-Gaete from the Blue Whale Center in Valdivia.

In his opinion, sustainable whaling is "almost utopic, since we're not talking about fish, but rather mammals that have one sole offspring," he said, and whose gestation period lasts one year.

But growing support for whaling has many worried. "The situation is very grave," said Sian Owen, head of the Wildlife Fund's Global Marine program, at this week's conference. "Not all species are threatened, but many still are. There is not one population of whales that could sustain commercial hunting. Moreover, we think there are already too many whales captured for scientific purposes."

Seven countries capture whales: Japan, for scientific purposes; the United States, Russia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Denmark, for ethnic reasons; and now Iceland along with Norway, for commercial use.

Pro-whaling countries point to the recuperation of certain whale populations, such as Minkes, whose numbers fluctuate between 400,000 and 700,000 worldwide. As a result, argued Chilean doctor Luis Pastene, Research Director at Tokyo's Institute of Cetacean Research, a decision should be made based on census numbers.

Chile "has historically held a pro-conservation stance," said David Tecklin, director of the Wildlife Fund in Chile. The commercial whaling debate reverberates strongly in Chile, home to the largest concentration of blue whales in the southern hemisphere. There are only two protected marine areas along Chile's 4,200-mile coastline, and only one is for whales.

Scientists estimate that only 5,000 blue whales remain after years of commercial exploitation.

A museum in the town of Ancud, near Chiloé, houses the fourth largest blue whale skeleton in the world and the largest in South America. Only Tokyo, London and New York have bigger specimen. Over one year of heroic effort by local fishermen, scientists, activists and community members to save the 85-foot skeleton will be soon rewarded when the bones are reconstructed into a simulation of a swimming whale.

A proposal to turn the Gulf of Corcovado near Chiloé into a protected marine sanctuary for blue whales is only a few government stamps from approval. This comes after recent discoveries of large blue whale populations and blue whale mating grounds along the coast of Chile?discoveries that caught the attention of scientists, activists and media around the world.

The Coastal Commission of Region X, composed of government authorities and representatives of the commercial and tourist sectors, approved the proposal for a protected area in March. If the Coastal Commission of Region XI approves the proposal, it will be reviewed by the Defense and Economic Ministries as well as the Secretary General to the President, who would submit the final proposal for approval to President Michelle Bachelet.

By Renata Stepanov The Santiago Times