ABERDEEN, Scotland (AP) -- World whaling authorities have denied a Siberian indigenous group the right to hunt a rare species, prompting Russia to accuse its opponents of hostility. The International Whaling Commission also called on Norway to end its commercial whale hunting.
Russia asked the whaling group to permit its Chukotka people to kill five bowhead whales annually under a special category permitting aboriginal people to hunt a few whales. Russia argued that the Chukotka needed the whales for food and to help rebuild traditions undermined by the Soviet government. They already have the right to hunt 140 gray whales a year, which are no longer listed as endangered. The bowhead is classified as endangered.
At the end of the International Whaling Commission's five-day annual conference Friday, the regulatory body almost succeeded in reaching a consensus in favor of Russia's request, but delegations from Mexico and Australia held out. Russia accused Mexico and Australia of bias, saying they were both determined to inflict damage on the Russian economy and harm its native peoples. The other delegates assured Russia that their decisions were based on the issue at hand and not meant to be hostile. Russia dropped the request.
The commission passed a resolution demanding that Norway to end its commercial whale hunting and report on the size of its whale-meat stockpiles and its efforts to clamp down on illegal exports. Norway objects to the commission's non-binding worldwide moratorium on commercial whaling. It resumed hunting in 1993, despite protests by many other nations and anti-whaling groups.
"We are not going to comply," Norwegian commissioner Kare Bryn said. "It is a matter of extreme irritation ... to be faced with this sort of resolution year after year."
Bryn and most of his delegation walked out, leaving a delegate to vote against the resolution, which passed 18 votesto nine. Norway does not kill whales at its 1970s level of about 1,800 a year, but takes several hundred minke whales annually.
Japan, too, objects to the moratorium and kills several hundred whales each year under a provision that allows a limited kill for scientific research. The commission called on Japan to stop hunting in an Antarctic whale sanctuary. Japan persists, despite repeated international protests.
The commission also passed a resolution against a Canadian plan to permit the indigenous Nunavut people in the Northwest Territories kill one bowhead whale. Canada, which withdrew from the commission in 1982, had an observer at the conference who objected to the resolution, saying the aboriginal peoples of Canada have a right to harvest marine mammals.