IWC must improve or it may quit group: Japan

Tokyo, Feb 15: Frustrated by a deadlock between feuding sides in the International Whaling Commission, Japan -- which is determined to resume commercial whaling -- today made a veiled threat to leave the group.

Japan and like-minded nations today ended a special meeting in Tokyo that they hoped would build momentum to resume commercial whale hunts, shifting the IWC's focus to management from moratorium. Thirty-seven of the 72 IWC members took part.

Hours before, Japan's flagship whaling vessel, the Nisshin Maru, caught fire off the coast of Antarctica, leaving one crew member missing.

The three-day meeting, which Japanese officials had termed a final attempt to save the IWC, was marred by a boycott by 26 anti-whaling nations, prompting criticism that they had chosen confrontation over dialogue and the need to restore trust.

Joji Morishita, Japan's alternate IWC commissioner, said improvement in the IWC had to be seen within months, certainly by the group's annual meeting in May.

''From (the May meeting in) Anchorage, some sort of positive movement needs to take place or we will have to rethink our options,'' he told sources.

Asked if this included quitting the group, he said, ''That's been on the table for years, just like all the other options.'' Pressure has been growing from pro-whaling politicians in recent years to pull out of the IWC, but Japanese officials say they want to do everything they can to save it first.

DIALOGUE NEEDED

But delegates said the IWC was at a turning point and could even be headed for collapse if nothing changes.

''I think it's very unfortunate and regrettable if they will not take part in dialogue,'' Morishita said.

Stefan Asmundssen, from Iceland -- which last year resumed commercial whaling -- said the meeting lost clout as a result.

''It would have been very different if we had had joint proposals by all IWC countries,'' he told sources.

''It sort of begs questions on where that leaves the IWC if we have many countries that don't want to improve things.'' The meeting issued a number of suggestions, including calling for secret ballots at IWC meetings, to submit to the IWC in May.

Japan today said it would also ask the IWC for permission to hunt an unspecificed number of minke whales off its coast, a move likely to anger the group. Tokyo has submitted similar proposals for years and had them voted down.

In what it termed a ''major concession,'' Japan said the whales to be taken under the new proposal would be part of its existing 220-minke Pacific hunt, with no rise in numbers.

Greenpeace criticised the proposal as nothing but cosmetic changes and said the meeting had accomplished nothing.

''I think they have a single objective, to hunt as many whales as they can,'' Shane Rattenbury of Greenpeace International said.

The IWC instituted a commercial whaling ban in 1986. But the group is now bitterly divided between countries that assert all whales need protection and others, such as Japan, that say some species are now abundant enough for limited hunting.

Japan, which says whaling is a cultural tradition, began scientific research whaling in 1987.

The meat, which under commission rules must be sold for consumption, ends up in supermarkets and restaurants, but the appetite for what is now a delicacy is fading.

Some experts say Japan fears that limits on whaling will lead to limits on all Japanese fishing, a crucial food source in a nation with limited agricultural land. Others argue the whaling campaign is a form of nationalist diplomacy.

Reuters