Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Japan rejects whaling compromise

|
|
 
  
Published: Feb. 3, 2009 at 10:34 PM

TOKYO, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- A proposal to end Japan's "scientific" whaling while allowing four communities to take a limited catch off the coast appears to have little support.

Neither Japanese nor Australian officials backed the plan drawn up by William Hogarth, chairman of the International Whaling Commission, and Alvarez de Soto, head of a task force on the commission's future, The Australian reports.

"We cannot accept a proposal that would end our research whaling program," Fisheries Minister Shigeru Ishiba told reporters Tuesday.

The Japanese quota, set unilaterally, for its take in the Antarctic Ocean this year is 850 minke whales and 50 fin whales.

Hogarth, from the United States, is trying to draw up a plan acceptable both to whaling countries like Japan, Iceland and Norway, and to "conservation" countries like Australia. The 84 member nations are to consider the proposal in June.

Under the plan, Japan would phase out its Antarctic whaling over five years. Four traditional whaling communities in Japan would be granted a limited catch of minke whales.

Topics: William Hogarth
© 2009 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
The Tibetan Moniam Festival in China Super Bowl XLVI ticker tape victory parade The making of the Oscars
The Chicago Auto Show The Most Desirable Women of 2012 Tu Bishvat Migron settlement
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 20
Syrian protests continue
View Caption
fark
Survey finds that men are quick to fall in love, roll over and fall asleep
Nerdiest sport ever: Combat juggling
Photoshop this topless athlete
Man rejects girlfriend's noodles, says toodles by leaving her in poodle of blood. Oodles of boodle...
Mormons tried to posthumously baptize Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel but were...
School principals should probably have background checks processed on them before they are hired...or...