“The IWC has the correct catch figures from one of the four Soviet factory ships which operated in the Antarctic from 1960 to 1974. When the international observer scheme was introduced in 1972 there was dramatic improvement in the agreement between the official and true records”, says IWC Secretary Ray Gambell to the High North News. Anti-whaling organisations, however, have concluded from the Soviet scandal that commercial whaling can under no circumstances be controlled.
Newspaper reports on the Soviet whaling scandal claim that under-reporting went on until the late 1980’s. “Although the correct data figures were recorded on the Soviet fleets and forwarded to Moscow, different data were sent to the Bureau of International Whaling Statistics and hence to the IWC. The difference between the two sets of reports shows that actual figures for the hunt were up to twice as high as official figures, and that blue whales and right whales were hunted long after they had been given total protection.
Exchanging observers
The International Observer Scheme continued to operate until the end of Antarctic commercial whaling; i.e. the last season of 1986/87.
Russia has now appointed a special committee whose task is to find out how many whales were actually caught during Soviet whaling operations. Russian IWC Commissioner, Mr. Constantine Shevliagin, has stated that one hopes to submit provisional results during the IWC meeting in Mexico in May.
“Since it would seem that the real figures were sent to Moscow, there is some hope that it will be possible to dig them up from various drawers and archives,” says Gambell.
Satisfactory
More difficult to control
In a letter to the magazine “Nature” (January 13, 1994), Russian scientist A. Yablokov refers to sources that say that under-reporting has also occurred at Japanese land-based sperm whaling stations. Gambell is aware of these accusations, but in his opinion this case may not involve the same degree of under-reporting as has been revealed in Russian whaling. He thinks that here, the problem might be that whales just below the minimum size limit may have been taken.
Since 1972, when the IWC passed the international observers scheme, Japanese observers have been placed on the Soviet whaling expeditions. “Only the whaling nations were willing to pay for observers, so those in the Antarctic, i.e. Japan and the Soviet Union, exchanged observers, as did those in the Northern Hemisphere, Norway, Spain, Canada and Iceland, for instance,” says Gambell.
“Opponents of whaling will be able to ask how this kind of deception can be prevented. They will again be able to demand that the Antarctic should become a perpetual sanctuary,” writes the Guardian this February, in the wake of the Soviet whaling scandal. In Ray Gambell’s opinion, international observers, in addition to national inspectors, on every factory ship or land station where whales are hauled in unprocessed, would provide a satisfactory precaution against cheating with figures, size and species.
According to Gambell, small-type whaling operations like the Norwegian minke whaling, will be far more difficult to control. A large number of international observers will be required in relation to the size and economic scope of the operations, and it will be difficult to arrange for accommodation for 2-3 persons on board such small vessels. “There has so far been no will to back the wish for international observers with cash,” says Gambell. He refers to the fact that various financial solutions have been discussed, such as a licence fee for whaling operations.