Date: Mon, 20 Oct, 1997
IWC Squabbles Pose Big Risks to Whales - Rainier

MONACO, (Reuters) - Prince Rainier of Monaco opened the International Whaling Commission's annual meeting on Monday, warning member states that their arguing risks tearing the organisation apart.
"We believe that decisions on whaling should be based on conservation considerations alone, with due respect for the rights of other nations to follow their own consciences," Rainier told the IWC's 49th annual session.

Rainier told the five-day meeting, expected to be one of the most heated in years, that bitter disputes between whaling and anti-whaling forces overlooked the main issues facing the organisation.
"As anti-whaling forces gain sufficient strength to impose their views unilaterally, the temptation will grow larger for whaling nations to defect from this commission ...reducing the IWC to a small club of protectionist countries," he said.

Pro-whaling states like Norway and Japan have become increasingly vocal in demands for an end to a moratorium on commercial whaling while anti-whaling members want to make the ban permanent.
"As it stands now, the tense conflict between the whaling and anti-whaling coalitions -- each entrenched in their firm resolve and convictions -- looks more and more like a no-win situation for the whales.

Coming from the anti-whaling camp, Ireland has put forward a controversial plan to end the deadlock and stem mounting whale slaughter that should be the main debating point of the Monaco conference. Under this plan, whaling on the high seas would be banned and only hunting in a few coastal areas for local consumption would be permitted. The IWC would regulate hunting and no new nations could begin whaling.

"Scientific whaling," the clause under which Japan hunts whales, would be banned. Japanese whale kills climbed to 540 this year from 517 last year and 288 in 1992, according to the environmental group Greenpeace.

Norway, which hunts minke whales in the North Atlantic after having registered an objection to the 1982 IWC moritorium, killed 503 whales in the last season, up from 383 in 1996 and 95 in 1992.



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