3 March 2010

“Thank you very much for the opportunity to address the Commission today. I am speaking on behalf of the Pew Environment Group.

We appreciate the hard work and efforts of the members of the Support Group, and recognize that there are some positive elements within the document, including:

1. The potential for all whaling to be brought under international oversight and control, including significant improvements in the international compliance and observer scheme;
2. The potential for elimination of unilateral scientific whaling under so-called special permits, to start to put an end to the abuse of Article VIII;
3. The proposed expansion of the Southern Ocean Sanctuary to include the boundaries of the proposed South Atlantic Ocean Sanctuary;
4. The proposal to restrict whaling to the three countries currently engaged in this practice, without prejudice to on-going aboriginal subsistence whaling; and
5. The proposed focus on external environmental threats to whales.

However, we are disappointed in one particular aspect of the document. We support finding a solution to the impasse at the IWC, to truly benefit whale conservation. It is known to all within the IWC that this has indeed been the goal of the Pew Whale Conservation Project since it began in 2007. We are thus concerned that the document proposes a legitimization of whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, by proposing a quota for whaling there by Japan, with no prospect of whaling in the Sanctuary going to zero in an agreed timeframe. It remains our firm view that only a phase-out to zero of whaling in the Sanctuary will allow for solutions to the other problems facing the Commission.

It is our sincere hope that the Government of Japan will adhere to the principle that whaling should not and will not take place within sanctuaries, and that whale research within sanctuaries will be restricted to non-lethal activities. We look forward to Japan’s clarification in this regard.

In addition, as all of the governments here today will be heading in 10 days to the CITES meeting in Qatar, it is important to recall that CITES listed the great whale species subject to the IWC moratorium in its Appendix I, based on a request from the IWC. It is vital that a final package address the issue of international trade in whale meat, including reservations under CITES—as consistent with precedent in this forum.

The Pew Environment Group remains committed to finding a way forward in this process. In that regard, we welcome Australia’s suggestions to improve the package for consideration of the SWG, as a positive way forward.

In conclusion, we urge you not to accept any solution which, in trying to bring the current unilateral catches under IWC control, legitimizes and indefinitely perpetuates whaling inside the Southern Ocean Sanctuary.

The Pew Environment Group looks forward to working with all of you between now and the meeting in 3 months, in Agadir, Morocco.

Thank you very much.”

Pew open Letter to IWC Commissioners available in PDF.