2009-06-25

USA Hijacks IWC For Whalers

USA hijacks IWC in an unprecedented move: Denmark’s humpback proposal postponed to special meeting
 
Madeira, Portugal – 25th June 2009
 
The US chair of the IWC has just taken the meeting of over 80 countries by total surprise this morning, announcing that the controversial Danish proposal for the hunt of ten humpback whales a year by Greenland will not be decided at the annual meeting. Instead he will hold the agenda item open and has called for an intersessional meeting before the end of this year, to resolve this one issue.
 
“This is unacceptable move by the IWC chair,” says Nicolas Entrup of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, WDCS. “The US sees that Denmark will likely fail to get a majority for their proposal and is using procedural tricks to avoid a vote.”
 
During the past days delegates have been debating the poorly substantiated proposal by Denmark for an aboriginal subsistence whaling quota of ten humpbacks a year. The proposal is the same one rejected by the Commission last year, and withdrawn the year before. The US-delegation and Denmark did everything to either get the proposal adopted or prevent a vote. Although the EU, which votes as block at the IWC, again refused to accept the poor request at the beginning of this year’s meeting, it was willing to compromise on a lower quota provided that Greenland provided missing scientific information. Greenland refused the deal offered; an intransigence that is poisoning the working atmosphere of the IWC.
 
Members states are now supposed to come together for the third time this year, just for this one agenda item. “It is not only a waste of tax payer’s money [and a massive carbon footprint] it might actually prevent many countries from attending. It will hardly be a democratic decision within the IWC”, says Nicolas Entrup.
 
“The decision is a cop-out, even if there is now still hope for the humpback whales not being hunted” concludes WDCS.


Contacts:
Thomas Schweiger: +351-925 548156
Nicolas Entrup: +49-171-1423.117