By Bridget Vercoe, WSPA NZ’s Country Manager

Governments from around the world are meeting in Morocco over the next couple of weeks to discuss a proposal which would legitimise commercial whaling.

The deal, championed by the United States, has emerged at the end of a 2-year series of negotiations to decide a future for the International Whaling Commission (IWC), aimed at resolving conflict between anti- and pro-whaling nations.

The deadly proposal, if adopted, would effectively lift the 24-year international moratorium on commercial whaling and legitimise whaling for a 10-year period.  Japan would be allowed to kill 400 minke and 10 fin whales a year in the waters around Antarctica and 120 animals a year in the North Pacific around its coasts. Iceland would be allocated an annual quota of 80 fin and 80 minke whales and Norway an annual quota of 600 minkes. 

Most New Zealanders reading this are probabaly horrified to hear that such a deal could even be considered. In fact, more than 54,000 New Zealanders – that’s one in every 80 – have signed a petition urging our Government to vote at this year’s IWC meeting against any deal which would legitimise commercial whaling.

The petition was presented to New Zealand’s Foreign Minister, Hon Murray McCully, earlier this month by the country’s animal welfare and conservation groups as well as its whale watching industry. The groups include WSPA, Greenpeace, Forest and Bird, Project Jonah, Whale Dolphin Conservation Society and Whale Watch Kaikoura.

Public oppostion to this deal in New Zealand is unsurprising. Support of a deal which condones whaling flies in the face of public opinion. New Zealand is a country which has long prided itself on its strong anti-whaling stance. Whales hold a special place in many New Zealanders’ hearts, with more than two-thirds of us opposing commercial whaling worldwide, according to a 2008 Neilsen Company poll.

Whilst we appreciate that many countries, including New Zealand, have invested considerable time and money into negotiating this deal, it is difficult to see how it is an improvement on the status quo.  

The deal currently before the IWC effectively lifts the moratorium setting a dangerous and unprecedented endorsement of commercial whaling. Even if time-bound, such a move would inevitably create an expectation within the whaling industry (and in countries watching from the sidelines) that further quotas would be forthcoming. This would effectively postpone the IWC’s current deadlock to a later date. It would also be impossible to guarantee that a package to benefit some IWC members in the short-term would not be used to open the floodgates in the future to other nations requesting coastal or ‘scientific’ whaling quotas, and planning to trade in whale products, allowing this cruel and unnecessary industry to expand worldwide. 

Even those involved in the negotiations have admitted that the deal currently on the table is littered with inconsistencies – keeping the moratorium in place but allowing commercial whaling, creating new whale sanctuaries but allowing whaling in existing ones. Perhaps the most extraordinary thing about this proposal is that it suggests that considerable additional costs of monitoring and managing these whaling operations should be met by all IWC members. It’s hard to imagine how many New Zealand taxpayers would be happy to find themselves helping fund these cruel hunts.

New Zealand prides itself as being a leader in animal welfare. Animal cruelty is not tolerated in our society. We have legislation which strictly forbids animal cruelty and people who hurt animals are punished harshly.

Hunting whales is undeniably cruel. There is scientific evidence that there is no humane way to kill a whale, with some whales taking an hour or even longer to die. This begs the question, is it appropriate for an international body, like the IWC, to sanction a commercial meat production industry which slaughters fully conscious animals using explosive missiles? Can a practice which so routinely causes intense and prolonged suffering to animals - simply to meet the dietary preferences of a dwindling fraction of society - ever be justified? We, like many of you, think not.

WSPA has urges our Government to hold firm and vote against any deal at this IWC meeting which legitimises commercial whaling.

If the New Zealand Government supports such a deal, it will not only undermine the most important international protection the whales have, but will also wipe out decades of whale conservation work by Kiwis and sabotage New Zealand’s clean, green reputation.