MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Whaling meeting tries to freeze and delay divisive issues

The International Whaling Commission voted down Thursday a request by indigenous Greenland fishermen to kill 10 humpback whales a year. IWC is holding its annual assembly for the first time in Santiago de Chile.

The fisherman offered to give up rights to eight fin whales in return for the humpbacks. Denmark pushed for a vote on the controversial proposal despite efforts by the IWC this week to find compromise between pro- and anti- whaling nations and postpone divisive issues. Denmark said its request was supported by a commission report that found stocks of humpback whales in Greenland waters have grown in recent years. But IWC officials said the request went beyond subsistence purposes and appeared to involve commercial interests in violation of the commission's 22-year-old moratorium on commercial whaling. Japanese delegate Joji Morishita strongly supported Denmark's request, saying he shared "the pain of the Greenland people" over the rejection. But Chilean delegate Christian Maquieira lamented the "return of divisive proposals" that have deadlocked the commission for years. The Latin American block on Thursday presented a proposal for the establishment of a whale sanctuary in the southern Atlantic Ocean, but did not ask for a vote in deference to a pact to avoid controversies. The so called "Buenos Aires Group" of 13 Latinamerican countries abstained from forcing a vote on a conservation area that would extend from Ecuador to Antarctica. "The proposal remains stand-by and part of the negotiating process", said the Chilean delegate Maqueira. However this did not impede Chilean president Michelle Bachelet and host of the IWC meeting to sign several bills protecting 43 cetacean species along the Chilean coastline and declaring cetaceans "national monument" as has been done in the past with other autochthonous species such as the huemul. This automatically imposes a ban on all whales hunting or catching and whoever infringes is exposed to a time serving crime. Meantime two-dozen members of the IWC have begun the uphill task of reconciling differences between pro- and anti-whaling countries that have paralyzed the full 81-member commission. The working committee includes pro-whaling countries Japan, Iceland and Norway, as well as staunch hunting opponents Australia and New Zealand. It is expected to submit a report at next year's conference in Madeira, Portugal.