19 June 2006 · ST .KITTS St. Kitts UNE V E LVIII CO NO ECO ...

ECO1S9TJ.unKe 2I0T06T ·SSt.· K1itts9 J U N E 2 0 0 6 · V O L U M E LV I I I · N O . 4 In this issue ...
➢Makah Faux Pas
ECO ➢EU Boo-boo
➢Japan’s Cruelty
International Whaling Commission Annual Meeting ➢St. Kitts’ Secret

Cartoon Science Wins! whalers against everybody else in the
IWC Approves St. Kitts Declaration
world.

Hearing the objections to their

St. Kitts and Japan finally won a that all members of the IWC could early draft, St. Kitts and Japan went back

vote before the full Commission, support, in the interest of reducing to the declaration to “fix” it.

bringing up the bogus St. Kitts tensions and getting the IWC “back on However, a reading of the new June

Declaration and passing it by one vote, track.” 18th

effectively blind-siding the Instead, as Declaration

Conservation-minded nations. ECO versus the

The original proposed St. Kitts reported June 17th

Declaration, from June 17th, attacked yesterday, version

NGO’s, claimed whales were eating all the proposal reveals that,

the ocean’s fish, and emphasized the attacked the for all

need to “normalize” the IWC by going conservation- practical

back to the good ol’ days of 1946 when minded purposes,

whales were slaughtered left and right nations, the there is no

with no compunctions for their welfare NGO difference

or protection. community, Japanese propaganda: With cartoon science it’s them or us. between

When confronted with the language and the fish- the two

on Saturday, several delegates objected eating whales themselves. There were no drafts. In a word, none!

to this first draft “normalization” provisions for healing, compromise or Some words are different, mostly

declaration, because St. Kitts and Japan consideration for “the other side” of the minor editorial changes. On the subject

had earlier expressed their interest in issues debated within the Commission. of whales gobbling fish, the new draft

submitting a reconciliation document The draft was just another diatribe by Concluded on page two

Bribes in Japan are Tax Deductible the companies and/or the size of the
parent company.
The Organization for Economic Co- Convention. In fact, according to the
operation and Development has charged OECD reports, “entertainment and The OECD report found that there
in several recent reports that Japan is social” expenses, which include, were few Japanese prosecutions for
not properly implementing anti-bribery according to Japanese authorities, bribe bribery that ever made it into court, and
statutes in the country to be in payments, are tax deductible up to a that in many cases, those found guilty
compliance with the Anti-Bribery certain limit, depending on the size of were given suspended sentences. They
also found loopholes in the law which
Japan Aid for Pro-whaling Votes? allow a Japanese national to give a bribe
in a foreign country and not be bound by
“Japan has given six Caribbean aid since 1998 and most of the small Japanese law.
nations—Dominica, St. Lucia, St. islands have consistently backed Japan
Vincent, Antigua, Grenada and St. on whaling” The reports by the OECD can be
Kitts—nearly £60m (E87.8m) in fishing —IOL Breaking News found on its website: www.oecd.org by
doing a search for “Japan Anti-Bribery
Convention.”

19 June 2006 · St. Kitts ECO Page Two

Commercial Fisheries Kill More Fish than Whales utilization of fish in 1990. Indeed,
according to the study, “in some of these
The Humane Society of the US has demonstrates that estimates of fish areas humans have been and are
consumption by twelve great whale extracting food resources from the
issued another volume of their series of species in both 1970 and 1990 is oceans at rates that are likely up to 100
substantially lower than estimates made times higher than those of any other
scientific reports by fisheries experts marine mammal species in marine

showing that human commercial ecosystems, even after we
account for the
fisheries have substantially considerable
uncertainties
replaced whales as
associated with our estimates.”
consumers of fish. The study concludes:
“Consequently, there is little evidence
The for the notion that the great whales or
any marine mammal species are to blame
claim that for current fisheries problems.”
As a grade school child might say:
whales are “Well, duh!”
For further information, go to:
harming fish stocks and in 1910, when many of the great www.hsus.org

competing with humans is whale species were still abundant. Minke Australia’s Minister of the
Environment Ian Campbell described
largely a false argument by whaling whales, the study emphasizes, are indeed the footage as “absolutely inhumane and
quite disgusting. It is a horrendous
nations to justify the continuation of numerous today but do not consume thing…it is absolutely abysmal, it is
wrong and it has to stop.” Campbell
their brutal whaling industry. large amounts of fish compared to the later presented this evidence to the
Commission during its discussion of the
The HSUS study, conducted by rapacious fishing fleets, such as those Japanese research whaling scheme.

fisheries experts with the University of controlled by Japan. A spokesman for the Japanese
delegation told the BBC that: “The time
British Columbia, Canada, and the Commercial fishing catches far to death of the majority of whales is less
than 30 seconds.”
University of St. Andrews, UK, outweighs the combined total of whale

Japan’s Cruel Minke Whale Hunt

Japan’s so-called “scientific one-half hour to die, while the average
whaling” scheme in the Antarctic time to death was 10 minutes of agony.
Ocean is cruel to minke whales, causing
prolonged suffering and pain, as In two cases, minke whales were
documented by film shot by the asphyxiated. The Japanese harpooners
environmental group Greenpeace. had hit these whales in the tail, and
hoisted the whales up to keep their
Scientists working with the blowholes underwater until they died.
International Fund for Animal Welfare
examined the footage taken by the “Back in the 1950’s it was
Greenpeace expedition to confront recognized that whaling was inhumane,”
Japan’s whaling vessels. Of the 16 minke Vassili Papastavrou of IFAW told the
whale kills filmed, one whale took over BBC. “and really nothing very much has
changed since then.”

Cartoon Science, continued from page one coastal nations, food security, etc. etc. the meeting, many receiving fisheries aid
leaves out a claim that whales eat “5-6 The gist and most of the wording of that from Japan in exchange for their support
times the total world catch for human paragraph remain the same. Virtually all for commercial whaling, demanded a
consumption” (which is a bogus figure, the other “whereas” paragraphs vote on the St. Kitts Declaration,
as scientific fisheries research will readily remained completely unchanged. winning 33-32.
demonstrate), but still claims whales are
eating the world’s fish and harming Similarly, some minor word changes Once again, as ECO reported
were made in the “therefore” clauses, but yesterday, St. Kitts is doing Japan’s dirty
ECO none change the original meaning of work, and such biased and wrong-headed
those paragraphs. declarations demean this beautiful
ECO is published on the occasion of the country and its people.
58th Annual Meeting of the Conservation-minded nations
International Whaling Commission. objected to the new draft and expected The Commission’s narrow majority
to negotiate with Japan on the language. that approved this anti-whale, anti-
But Japan and St. Kitts, finally having conservation resolution should be
enough pro-whaling delegates present at ashamed of themselves.

19 June 2006 · St. Kitts ECO Page Three

Makahs Join Russian Whale Hunt Animals states: “Killing whales in Russia

Australians for Animals is raising Makah to aboriginal subsistence is a demonstration of bad faith by the

important questions about a whaling whaling. Makah tribe. These actions do not

junket taken by members of the US And did the Makah illegally help encourage US citizens to believe that

Makah Indian tribe to the Federation of the Russians kill gray whales during this the tribe is either law abiding or

Russia last summer, including possibly trip? And which gray whales were killed responsible.”

illegally helping Russian whalers kill - any from the seriously endangered The tribe’s future whaling efforts in

gray whales. Western population of gray whales, the the US have been held up by a lawsuit

In an e-mail dated Sept. 13, 2005, most endangered great whale population from Australians for Animals and other

Nathan Pamplin, the Makah tribe’s in the world? environmental groups. The US

biologist, announced he and two other The US delegation has a lot of government is proposing a technical

Makah tribe representatives visited explaining to do to the Commission and “waiver” to the federal Marine Mammal

Russia “to examine the type of data they to the US Congress about this particular Protection Act, a process that has never

collected on landed whales” and “to hunting excursion. As Australians for been done before.

participate in a cultural exchange to Secret Ballots Illegal at Whaling Talks, But ...
observe and get trained on whaling
techniques and processing landed

whales.” The proposals for secret ballots and authority from their own citizens to

The Makah tribe claims to be a other mechanisms embedded in an engage in secret practices that are illegal

subsistence operation aimed at international whaling convention are in their own countries.”

upholding their own tribal cultural designed to promote the slaughter of Copies of some of these laws can be

rituals. Why then is the tribe visiting a whales and are illegal, says the Humane found on the HSC website:

modern catcher boat operation in Society of Canada, which conducted an www.humanesociety.com

Siberia to learn whaling and processing extensive study of country laws and ... Now We Know
techniques? regulations related to government
secrecy and free speech.
The Makah’s original proposal to

the US for a resumption of whaling As member countries of the United “As a matter of fact we are

included the prospect of commercial Nations and other bodies like the EU, convinced that it was because of a secret

whaling, to provide Japan with yet all of these countries have constitutions ballot that St. Kitts-Nevis was able to

another source of whale meat and and laws that guarantee freedom of defeat France in 2004 in Italy for the

(probably much more importantly) to speech and expression. HSC notes: right to host this year’s conference in

undermine the US position in the IWC “These civil servants and elected Basseterre.”

against a resumption of commercial officials (on delegations attending the —Lloyd Pascal, Dominica’s IWC

whaling. To date, the US government IWC) need a harsh dose of reality. They Commissioner, as quoted in

has resisted this approach, limiting the have neither the mandate nor the HardbeatNews.com, June 17, 2006.

19 June 2006 · St. Kitts ECO Page Four

Fun Facts on Whale Watching Zero, nil, nada: The number of
whaling countries sending
1,500,000,000: The amount, in 14: The number of different representatives to the Workshop.
US dollars, of income annually countries represented at the First
generated by whale watching worldwide. International Workshop on the (These statistics were gleaned from the
Management and Non-lethal Use of IWC Report submitted by the government
100: The number of countries that Cetaceans held in Argentina Sept. 27- of Argentina for Item 13, Whale
offer whale watching cruises to the 29, 2005. Watching.)
public.

Time for the EU to Stop Trade Benefits for Norway and Iceland

Norway and Iceland, two countries time for the EU to demand hard answers urging citizens of EU member countries
that have refused to join the European from Norway and Iceland, two of the to send a clear signal to the EU
Union, benefit enormously from a series most prosperous countries on Earth, is leadership and their own governments
of complex trade agreements with the long overdue. What makes them deserve that they expect Norway and Iceland to
EU. In effect, Norway and Iceland are such special and preferential treatment? end commercial and so-called “scientific
treated like EU countries, but without Why should they still be allowed to whaling” or forfeit their privileged trade
the obligations to fulfill many of the slaughter whales in defiance of EU law status.
requirements for EU membership. and an international whaling ban?”
A Whaler's Limerick
The Humane Society of Canada Allowing Norway and Iceland to
notes that the EU now includes 25 pick and choose which qualifications for A wonderful scheme is the RMP,
countries and 456 million people. Many membership they like and which they do It parcels out great quotas so nicely.
other countries are seeking entry to the not is patently unfair and prejudicial to But if it should fail,
EU. One of the important requirements the rest of the member states that play And you really want whales,
for EU membership includes agreement by the EU rules. It’s best to harpoon scientifically.
to ban commercial whaling.
In conclusion, HSC says that
Asks HSC Chairman and CEO Norway and Iceland do not deserve a
Michael O’Sullivan: “In our view, the free ride on the whaling issue. HSC is