“It is important not to lose our food culture” says Professor Takashi Matsuishi, adding that whale should be used “sustainably based on scientific evidence.”
After IWC68, the institution must adapt to include member countries deeply divided in their views toward living marine resources and values of sustainable use.
Overall, in IWC68 the process intended to produce fairness under Western standards was incapable of meeting the needs of developing countries.
The IWC68 financial crisis highlights the IWC’s reduced priority for scientific decision making and raises concerns among pro-sustainable use nations.
The resumption of commercial whaling was not Japan’s only policy goal at IWC68. Another policy goal was to uphold and promote the principle of sustainable use.
The oceans cover 70% of the planet and NAMMCO provides an essential forum for unrestricted discussion of the interrelationship between humans and marine mammals.
“Eating marine mammals is our national identity,” said the participants from Greenland. Their unity of viewpoint impressed this first-time participant.
Lessons in sustainability at NAMMCO showed why the whaling issue is not easily tidied away by declaring whether one is “for” or “against” hunting the animals.
In practice the IWC has already abandoned the management of whale resources and whaling, and the Western worldview caused this situation.
Not the whaling moratorium, but the defense and promotion of the general principle of sustainable use is the important policy issue for many countries.