The 60th annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission
Hori Parata from Ngatiwai attended the 60th annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) held in Santiago, Chile, in June as a member of the delegation from Te Ohu Kaimoana. He provides some thoughts of the meeting and his visit to South America.
I have been heavily involved in research about whales both locally and nationally for many years so it was a privilege to be asked by Te Ohu Kaimoana to join their delegation to the International Whaling Commission. Te Ohu Kaimoana has been involved with marine mammal issues since the mid 1990s, and has been working with other indigenous people around the world on the whaling issue since then.
I try to look at whales holistically – from a scientific perspective, as well as from the perspectives of the New Zealand public, Maori and internationally. So, naturally, it was appealing to witness the negotiations at the world’s forum for whales, the IWC. Unfortunately, the conference itself only confirmed what I already knew through my research. Twenty five years ago the IWC departed from its original purpose and became a whale protectionist organisation while at the same time tolerating limited whaling by pro whaling nations. The road it went down was a long and bumpy one that was full of pot holes and broken bridges. For some, within the first 10 years they were beginning to suspect that this might be a dead end road. But for the more stubborn and determined countries like New Zealand, Australia, United Kingdom and the United States, as well as whale protectionist groups like Greenpeace, the militant and extremist Sea Shepherd there was no turning back.
 |
| Ngatiwai’s Hori Parata at the 60th Annual Meeting of the International Whaling Commission. |
The road of the IWC is a dead-end road. The IWC finds itself today to be solidly painted into a corner. In Santiago, the IWC members were not able to achieve any meaningful outcomes no matter how hard they tried. Even being nice and respectful to one another didn’t help! So, the biggest debate at the IWC currently is whether the organisation itself has a future. There is certainly a gaping chasm between those who want to sustainably hunt whales for food for generations to come and those IWC members who want to stop all whaling.
As Maori, who until post-colonisation times ate whalemeat, I can sympathise with the whaling peoples at the IWC. As whale populations’ increase, it becomes clearer that the moratorium is not scientifically justified and whaling nations have legally increased their catches outside of IWC control. This has resulted in rear-guard actions by non-government organisations and placed greater pressure of antiwhaling countries to curb catch limits.
But it is important to remember that we are talking only about whaling for food. Whaling in the 21st Century is not like the ageold days of former industrial whaling where whales were hunted by Western nations merely for their oil. These days, whaling is for feeding people, and in an age when we are faced with a global food crisis, it is hard to deny this to whaling peoples.
One debate that occurred in Santiago was over Greenland’s request for 10 humpback whales. Greenland already hunts minke whales and fin whales but needs to have more whalemeat among their population to feed the growing numbers of people. This year, the pre-eminent Scientific Committee made a definitive statement in its report and recommended that Greenland’s proposal be accepted. Similarly, Greenland also demonstrated there was a nutritional need for the whale meat.
Despite the sound argument in favour of a catch quota, 36 IWC members voted against Greenland, including New Zealand and Australia. Supporting the indigenous people were 29 IWC members, including the other Pacific nations of Kiribati, Nauru, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Palau and the Marshall Islands. Unfortunately, Greenland did not get enough votes.
There are tremendous costs of holding this IWC event annually. It was noted that the cost per Commissioner is about $125,000, so with 79 commissioners that’s a lot of money going nowhere.
One consideration was whether the IWC should be disbanded altogether. Maori don’t need the IWC because we already have up to one thousand whales dying on our beaches every year. New Zealand also has recorded the highest single stranding incident in the world where 1000 pilot whales beached on the Chatham Islands in 1918.
I watched Greenland and other countries wanting 10, 20 or 30 whales get turned down at the IWC. You would think that the problem for them is that they have to kill a whale to have a whale which is quite the reverse for us, Te Iwi Maori. Our issues are back here in our own country, the principle one being to turn ‘mind set’ and ‘mono-culturalism’ around so that our customary rights are properly provided for in New Zealand legislation. The amount of money spent convening IWC proves without a doubt that whales are big business.
Despite the ructions of the IWC and the political machinations, the highlight of our trip was meeting up with indigenous Chileans – some people from Rapanui. While looking around Santiago, we heard: “Kia ora, tena koe, are you Maori from New Zealand?” His name was Yuan Pablo and he had been to New Zealand to improve his English and where he learnt to speak Maori, do the haka and sing waiata. As a result, we met more people from Rapanui and renewed a very strong connection between our two peoples. This indeed was the icing on the cake.
If you have any news or events coming up that you'd like covered
in an issue of Te Tai Pari, drop us an email at
Tiakina ngā rawa hi ika, a tātou kaimoana mo ngā uri whakaheke
Protecting Māori fisheries assets for future generations