Morley Fights to Keep Ban on Whaling

Fisheries minister Elliott Morley flew to Japan last night to try to prevent the 17 year ban on commercial whaling being overturned at the International Whaling Commission.

Several small countries which are recipients of heavy Japanese aid including Palau, Cape Verde, and Gabon have joined the IWC meeting which is under way at the whaling port of Shimoneseki.

They are expected to join the pro-whaling lobby giving Japan and its allies the majority on the commission for the first time since the 1970s.

Mr Morley said: "This will be a difficult meeting. There have been allegations of vote buying, and we deplore any evidence of using financial inducements to gain votes.

"However, the countries concerned deny it, so we accept their word for it, as we must, but it does look as though Japan has mustered enough votes to gain the majority. If the change in membership continues at this rate we could lose the battle."

Japan has been campaigning for more than a decade to resume commercial whaling and has a block vote of six Caribbean nations, the Solomon Islands and several African countries, all recipients of fisheries aid. Last year Japan came within one vote of gaining a majority and since then five countries have joined, but not all may vote with Japan.

Iceland, another pro-whaler, was prevented rejoining by one vote last year because of a row over conditions its government had attached to membership, but is expected to be admitted this year adding another vote on the Japanese side. Iceland wants to resume killing whales under a loophole in the IWC rules which allows for "scientific" whaling but last year's majority was not prepared to accept Iceland on that basis.

A simple majority will strengthen Japan's position, Mr Morley said, because it would allow them to push through proposals for secret ballots . But that would not be enough to overturn the moritorium. A three quarters majority of the 45 member states of the commission is required to make such a fundamental change and he still did not believe there were enough votes to achieve this.

"Honestly it is just too early to say what will happen. The like minded countries as we are called, including the USA, Germany, the Netherlands, Brazil, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand can probably muster enough support to block them," Mr Morley said.

Membership of the IWC is open to any country to join on a fee of £2,200 and used to be restricted to whaling, or former whaling, countries. Since the 1970s first the anti-whaling lobby and then the pro-whalers have been inducing small countries to join to try to gain the upper hand in negotiations.

Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, all in the West Indies, now vote in a bloc for Japan. In the last two years Benin, Costa Rica, Morocco, the Solomon Islands, the Republic of Guinea, Palau, Cape Verde and Senegal have been added to the list, all expected to vote this year for whaling.

Two countries, Portugal, and perhaps the smallest of all, San Marino, have also decided to join and are expected to be against whaling. Portugal wants to protect its whale watching tourist industry in the Azores.