Japan to kill Australian whales

SINCE 1991 whale watchers have spotted Migaloo, possibly the world's only pure white humpback whale, off the Queensland coast each year during its annual migration.

But there are real fears that Migaloo's life - along with many other humpback, minke and fin whales - is in danger.

Next month Japan will take a proposal to the International Whaling Commission to more than double its annual hunt of the Antarctic minke whale. Even more disturbing is Japan's plan to resume whaling of threatened populations of fin and humpback whales in the Southern Ocean.

Australia recently celebrated more than 25 years of whale conservation.

Only now are we starting to see the recovery of some depleted populations. The Government is finalising comprehensive strategic plans

for threatened whales to ensure their long-term protection and recovery.

Southern right and humpback whales are becoming a seasonal highlight as

they migrate in growing numbers from the Antarctic to our warmer coastal waters to breed. The song of the humpback is being heard once more.

Australians hold great affection for these creatures and are appalled at the use of science as a cover for the resumption of commercial whaling. The Government, including the Prime Minister, has taken Australia's concerns to the highest levels with Japanese officials in Australia, Japan and at a recent meeting at the UN in New York. While we hope that diplomatic action will help Japan rebuttess and pull back from its plan, history suggests we cannot be confident.

The difficulty is that most of the Japanese Fisheries Agency's proposed

whale dissolution is in Australia's Antarctic waters. Intercepting whalers in this area, as a last resort, would raise objections from the

many countries that do not recognise Australia's jurisdiction in these waters. It would be a different story if the JFA was to attempt to take

whales from recognised Australian waters (such as the 200 nautical mile

exclusive economic zone off Heard and McDonald islands).

The best chance Australia has of stopping the JFA from pursuing its plans is by removing an outdated loophole in the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling that allows for so-called "scientific" whaling.

At present, the IWC is unable to regulate scientific whaling programs. Under its rules, any member country can issue permits to its own nationals to take as many whales as they specify, ostensibly for the purposes of "science". The proposals may receive harsh criticism within

the IWC but the proposing country is under no obligation to answer these or to alter its catch in response.

The JFA has been exploiting this loophole to conduct commercial whaling

under the guise of scientific research. It is understood that sales of whale meat produced by scientific whaling amount to more than $60 million a year.

Australia, along with other like-minded IWC-member countries, including

the US, Britain and New Zealand, has been working hard to reform the IWC in recent years. Australia in particular has worked to pursue conservation outcomes within the IWC.

This new whaling proposal adds even greater urgency to efforts to amend

the convention and remove the loophole that allows scientific whaling.

The IWC has already declared the Southern Ocean to be a sanctuary from commercial whaling. This sanctuary is directly undermined by the JFA's scientific whaling program, which targets the Southern Ocean minke, fin

and humpback whales.

The JFA's new scientific whaling proposal follows an 18-year program that led to the killing of almost 7000 Antarctic minke whales. This is during a time when a complete international ban on commercial whaling is supposedly in place.

According to media reports, Japan is proposing a program that would, if

continued for another 18 years, take about 17,000 minke whales along with 800 humpback whales and 800 fin whales. This cannot be disguised as science. This is full-scale commercial whaling and a dissolution of one of the largest and most intelligent creatures on our planet.

It is time to consign scientific whaling to the past and bring the IWC into the new millennium. Our goal is to amend the IWC convention and remove the loophole that allows scientific whaling.

This generation will be judged in part by the way we treat these amazing creatures. Australia will not only continue to fight to save this important species, we will lead this historic mission.

Ian Campbell is the federal Environment Minister.

------------------