WWF Condemns Japanese Tactic to Deny Alaska Natives Food for Their Tables

5/24/2002

From: Kerry Zobor of the World Wildlife Fund, 847-853-1384 SHIMONOSEKI, Japan, May 24 -- World Wildlife Fund today condemned political tactics by Japan at the International Whaling Commission's annual meeting here that denied a Native community in Alaska the small-scale whale hunt it needs to feed its people each winter. After failing to win any of the commercial whaling proposals it backed during the week-long IWC meeting, Japan retaliated by using its voting bloc to deny Alaskan Inuits the right for an annual hunt of 67 bowhead whales. The U.S. submitted the proposal twice during the week and each time a Japan-led coalition blocked it. "It is unconscionable for Japan to use a vulnerable Native population as a pawn in a political battle that literally takes food off people's tables," said Richard Mott, WWF vice president for international policy and an official observer to the IWC. "Japan's desperation to advance its narrow economic agenda has come at high cost to its reputation and stature in the international community." Despite a worldwide ban on commercial whaling in effect since 1986, Japan continues to hunt whales and sell the meat commercially, claiming an exemption for scientific research allowed under the moratorium. As host of this year's IWC, Japan pulled out all the stops to push for a return to open, widespread commercial hunts for its whaling fleets. Despite backing from a bloc of Carribbean and West African nations whose support it has bought with foreign aid, Japan's efforts were unsuccessful all week. In retribution, the Japanese-controlled bloc voted to deny subsistence bowhead whale hunts for U.S. and Russian native communities, which have survived on meat from the healthy bowhead populations for generations. The final U.S. and Russian proposal, considered on Friday, fell short of the required three-quarters majority by a single vote in the 47-member IWC. After the vote, the mayor of the North Slope Borough in Alaska addressed the IWC. "We are very disappointed," said Mayor George Ahmaogak. "We worked very hard to provide good science and meet the requirements of the IWC" during the bowhead hunt. "Arctic winters are long and brutal," Mott said. "The Inuits of Alaska could suffer gravely because Japan was unable to win the right to unlimited whale sushi. How much longer is Japan willing to do this kind of harm to its international reputation?"