Russian Reservation to Whale Sanctuary Withdrawn

Diplomatic pressure from several nations, including direct contact by US vice president Al Gore, lead to Russia withdrawing its reservation against the Southern Hemisphere Whale Sanctuary, says a source in the Russian environment ministry to the High North News. The reservation was withdrawn in September.

During this year’s meeting of the International Whaling Commission in Mexico this May, Russia supported the establishment of the whale sanctuary in the Southern Hemisphere. Then,to everyone’s surprise, they filed a reservation in September, against the decision they had previously supported. Russia already has a standing reservation against the IWC moratorium on commercial whaling. This entailed in theory a situation whereby Russia, pursuant to the Whaling Convention, could legally have started whaling operations in the Antarctic.

According to the Australian newspaper, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian, New Zealand and US governments made diplomatic representations to Moscow, expressing their concern over the Russian reservation. In Canberra, Russian diplomats were called in to the Australian IWC commissioner, Dr. Peter Bridgewater, who chairs the Commission. According to several sources, the irresolution rife in Russian whaling policy is a result of internal conflicts between the ministry of fisheries and the ministry of the environment regarding jurisdiction over such matters.

Japan is now the only IWC member with a legal reservation against the Southern Hemisphere sanctuary. This does not, however, mean that the Japanese can begin whaling in the Antarctic since they did not lodged a reservation against the IWC’s general moratorium on commercial whaling. Should the moratorium be lifted, however, then the sanctuary would be of no hindrance to Japanese whaling.