WASHINGTON -- Interior Secretary James Watt, pledging himself to protection of the world's endangered whales, has recommended appointment of an environmentalist as U.S. whaling commissioner, officials said Monday.
Watt, who has come under intense criticism from environmentalists, has urged that Tom Garrett, former conservation director of Friends of the Earth, be named to lead the U.S. delegation to the International Whaling Commission.
Watt promoted Garrett, an old friend from Wyoming, in letters to Secretary of State Alexander Haig and Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldridge.
Elizabeth Kaplan, Friends of the Earth legislative director, said naming Garrett would be a 'good appointment.' But she said, 'I think it's possible Watt wants to throw a bone in the environmental direction.'
The Friends of the Earth has joined the Sierra Club in a petition drive to recall Watt for his pro-development positions.
In his letter to Haig and Baldrige, Watt said appointment of Garrett would be important to thecontinuing U.S. drive to negotiate a 10-year ban on the commercial hunting of 'these magnificant marine mammals.'
'I believe it should be this administration's goal to reaffirm that decade-old moratorium and to once and for all times bring commercial whaling under control,' he wrote.
Watt called Garrett, a member of the U.S. whaling delegation since 1971, 'a distinguished conservationist' and 'the most knowlegeable historian on modern whaling.'
Under the Whaling Convention Act, the president appoints the U.S. commissioner to the international body with the agreement of the secretaries of state and commerce.
The Interior Department, which has listed the great whales as endangered species, shares jurisdiction with Commerce for seals and whales under the 1972 Marine Mammal Act.
Ms. Kaplan said Watt's endorsement of Garrett was 'a pretty small bone' to environmentalists because whaling is 'a very narrow, very safe area.'
'It has nothing to do with the whole public lands policy,' she complained, saying environmentalists would prefer to see one of their number placed in charge of strip mine regulation or the Fish and Wildlife Service.
