Greenland threatens to quit whaling body over refusal to increase kill quota

Published on Saturday 13 September 2008 19:35

GREENLAND has launched a fresh attempt to hunt humpback whales by withdrawing from the international body that regulates the controversial industry.

Ministers from Greenland's fisheries department have written to their counterparts in Denmark revealing they want to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission, it was reported yesterday. The IWC has twice refused requests from Greenland to permit the addition of humpback whales to its annual quota, infuriating the territory's whalers who say the extra meat is needed for its indigenous communities.

But there are concerns that withdrawal from the world's whaling body would have serious implications as Greenland's hunts could expand without international oversight.

The development comes on the eve of a meeting in Florida aimed at finding a compromise within the fractured IWC. The meeting is the latest stage in a "peace process" that began more than a year ago.

But the move by Greenland's politicians suggests fundamental divisions remain.

Greenland's Inuit communities catch minke, fin and bowhead whales under regulations permitting hunting where there is a "nutritional and cultural need".

At the 2007 and 2008 IWC meetings, Greenland requested adding an annual quota of 10 humpback whales. The requests were turned down owing to concerns that Greenland had not demonstrated a real need for the meat, and that its existing hunting was too commercial in character.

The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) found that a quarter of Greenland's catch last year was traded for profit through a private food company. Yesterday it emerged a letter has been sent from the fisheries ministry of the territory's home-rule administration, based in Nuuk, to Denmark's foreign ministry, asking that Greenland withdraw from the IWC.

Greenland is represented by Denmark, its former colonial ruler, on the IWC and it has a number of options for formal withdrawal. It can either ask Denmark to leave the organisation, or to stop representing it, or to redraw the areas of responsibility of the Copenhagen and Nuuk administrations to make whaling a completely home-rule issue.

Danish officials have declined to elaborate on the issue, and Greenlandic fisheries officials did not respond to requests for clarification.

There is resentment in several Arctic countries over what is seen as the imposition of western cultural values on communities that take most of their food from the sea. A recent meeting of the North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission (Nammco) concluded that Greenland should have an annual quota of up to 10 humpbacks. Greenland is adhering to the IWC ruling rather than Nammco's recommendation, but this might now change.

A global moratorium has been in place on commercial whaling since 1986. However, the IWC is under pressure from both pro- and anti-whaling countries. Any member country can leave at any time or withdraw from a specific ruling.

Anti-whaling countries, such as the Netherlands, are adamant that the commercial whaling moratorium should stay; that scientific hunting, which is presently in the gift of individual governments must be brought under IWC control; and that no countries beyond Iceland, Japan and Norway should be permitted to start whaling.