Japan Delegate Criticizes U.S. Move at IWC Meet

Agadir, Morocco, June 24 (Jiji Press)--A Japanese delegate to the
International Whaling Commission's annual meeting on Thursday criticized the
United States for seeking approval of only whaling by indigenous groups
after the chair's attempt for a compromise agreement failed.
Yasue Funayama, Japanese parliamentary secretary for agriculture,
forestry and fisheries, told a press conference that she was surprised at
the United States' forcefulness.
Funayama was referring to a proposal the United Sates has submitted
jointly with Denmark to allow aboriginal subsistence whaling by indigenous
groups such as the Inuit over seven years through 2017.
The United States made the move right after the IWC chair's
proposal, aimed at breaking the deadlock at the IWC, faltered on Wednesday
due to a sharp divide between the whaling and antiwhaling camps.
The chair's proposal would allow a limited scale of commercial
hunting by Japan and other whaling countries as well as aboriginal
subsistence whaling by indigenous groups. Japan would face a sharp cut in
its scientific research whaling in the Antarctic Ocean.
In putting forward the amendment, the United States effectively
extracted only what mattered to the country from the chair's proposal.
In Thursday's session of the IWC annual meeting, which opened
Monday, many participants opposed even discussing the U.S.-Danish proposal.
On the final day of the meeting on Friday, member countries will
decide whether to give an additional whaling quota to Greenland, a
self-governing island of Denmark, and discuss how to proceed with
negotiations after failing to reach an accord on the chair's proposal.


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