By Bridget Vercoe

You would think I would have a little time to spend by the pool with the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting adjourned for the day. Governments were holding closed door meetings to discuss the compromise proposal which could see commercial whaling legitimised.

But no, I had a full day of meetings booked. The first meeting of the day was to introduce the Norwegian animal welfare groups to the New Zealand delegation.

NOAH and the Norwegian Society for the Protection of Animals have been working closely with The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) to highlight the cruelty of whaling to the Norwegian public with the hope of building opposition to the country’s whale hunts.

Last month we conducted an investigation in Norway in which we filmed a Norwegian whale hunt. The footage collected clearly demonstrates that the methods used to kill whales – exploding harpoons – are neither reliable nor humane. The footage shot during the investigation shows a whale suffering for a minimum of 22 minutes and possibly for over 2 hours before dying or left injured to an unknown fate.

We felt it important that the New Zealand delegation was aware of this investigation and the changing public opinion in Norway. Demand for whale meat in Norway is rapidly declining and Norwegians appetite for hunting whales is going along with it. According to a survey recently carried out by NOAH, 34 percent of the Norwegian public think that Norwegian whaling should be phased down due to welfare concerns. One of the country’s largest supermarkets has stopped selling whale meat.

Norway’s animal welfare groups are worried that public opinion will swing back in favour of the whalers if the IWC condones the country’s whale hunt as suggested in the proposed package.

At lunchtime, I was one of the speakers at the WSPA press conference to showcase opposition to whaling around the world on welfare grounds. The conference highlighted the work being done in Norway, the group of Latin American countries that support whale conservation, the 54,000 strong petition signed by New Zealanders to express concern about the introduction of any proposal to legitimise commercial whaling and the strong public opinion against whaling in Australia. The Australian Minister for Environmental Protection, Peter Garrett, joined the conference to show his support for WSPA.

Lastly, but by no means least, was a meeting with New Zealand’s Foreign Minister, Hon Murray McCully, New Zealand’s IWC Commissioner, Sir Geoffrey Palmer, and the rest of the delegation to discuss the outcome of the day’s government meetings.

Countries have been broken into ten groups for negotiating purposes. New Zealand is in a group with Australia, the United States, Israel, Monaco and Oman. In addition to the IWC group meetings, various bi-lateral meetings have also been held as the New Zealand Government along with other members of the IWC have tried to thrash out some workable compromise deal. 

It is looking highly unlikely at this stage that any deal, good or bad, will be agreed on before the end of the week.

The meeting will reconvene tomorrow morning (23 June) when a full report on the progress of the negotiations will be made and discussed. It is anticipated the negotiations will continue until the end of the week.

Peter Garrett at WSPA's IWC press conference in Agadir, Morocco:

Joanna Toole at WSPA's IWC press conference in Agadir, Morocco: