Reports from Tokyo suggest that Japan will allow the import of 65 tonnes of whale meat sent from Iceland last June. The meat, which was impounded by customers on arrival, consists of around 60 tonnes of fin whale meat from Iceland’s whaling company Hvalur hf, and about five tonnes of minke meat exported by the Norwegian company Myklebust Trading.
International trade in whale products was banned by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to support the International Whaling Commission’s (IWC) ban on commercial whaling in 1986. However, Iceland, Norway and Japan have lodged formal reservations to the ban and so can trade whale products perfectly legally amongst themselves.
Japan, Iceland and Norway are currently killing over 2,000 whales each year between them in defiance of the whaling ban. However, up until now the whalers have been wary of reopening international trade for fear of serious repercussions from the international community, and the United States in particular.
Meanwhile, IWC members are currently engaged in ongoing negotiations to try and find a compromise way forward for the organisation before its next annual meeting in Portugal in June (2009).
“The timing of this decision, is clearly intended to send a defiant message to the IWC that its business as usual for whalers and they are not interested in compromise’ said Campaign Whale’s Andy Ottaway, ‘the sad fact is that world governments are not doing enough to stop just three countries from killing whales for profit. Only economic and political sanctions can save the whales now.”
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