Subsistence whale quota 'necessary for Alaska'
29/05/2007 - 08:12:35Renewing a five-year bowhead whale quota for Alaska native communities that rely on subsistence whaling is crucial, the International Whaling Commission has been told.
“It is more than a right – it is an absolute necessity which affects every facet of their well-being,” Sen. Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican, told delegates of the 76-nation meeting in Alaska. “To deny this history would jeopardise their way of life.”
The meeting drew scores of anti-whaling activists to monitor the four-day proceedings and lobby for increased protection for the marine mammals.
Among other issues, they are keeping a close watch on a plan by Japan to hunt endangered humpback whales and a proposed renewal of bowhead whale quotas for indigenous hunters, such as Alaska natives in 10 coastal villages.
The proposed subsistence renewal would keep the quota for Alaska natives at 260 bowhead whales until 2012. That number is supported by the US delegation and other nations that say bowhead populations have steadily increased under the quota.
Harvesting whales is considered a sacred accomplishment by many of an estimated 5,000 Alaska Eskimos who rely heavily on the meat to fill their tables. Ceremonial dances are held to bless the hunts and successful harvests prompt village celebrations where the meat is cut up and distributed.
Alaska natives were harmed when the commission suspended the quota in 1977, Stevens said.
Until the quota was restored the following year, canned beef had to be flown in to the remote villages to make up the loss of protein and fat, but it was not enough, Stevens said.
“These were poor substitutes for whale blubber, which fortifies native people against the harsh Arctic climate,” he said.
Complicating the issue, Greenland wants to increase its minke whale quota and add humpback and bowhead whales to its indigenous hunt for the first time.
The meeting is expected to end with the continuation of a 21-year moratorium on commercial whaling despite a symbolic resolution to overturn the ban that was passed at last year’s meeting. A 75 per cent majority would be necessary to end the moratorium, but the vote fell short of that mark.
The moratorium was enacted in 1986 to protect several vulnerable species.
Pro-whaling nations, including Japan, Norway and Iceland, argue that it is no longer needed because whale populations have rebounded. Norway and Iceland do not recognise the ban and conduct commercial whaling. Japan hunts more than 1,000 whales a year under a scientific research provision allowed by the IWC.
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