"It is very nice that Iceland wants to come back to the IWC, but the reservation will give us huge problems," says current IWC chairman Bo Fernholm of Sweden to the International Harpoon.

Fernholm fears that if Iceland's reservation is accepted, it will set a precedent that will allow other states who are unhappy with IWC decisions to leave and then return, but without being bound by the decisions that caused them to leave in the first place.

Iceland's behaviour is "strange", he says, and sets "a very bad example", especially when one considers that it once accepted the moratorium. "It might be problematic to the IWC if (the Icelandic reservation) goes through," he says.

Iceland, however, could argue that while it had not objected in 1982 to the moratorium decision, that decision had been passed on the demonstrably false premise that it would be reviewed by 1990 "at the latest". Furthermore, since the decision was made, several key IWC members have stated that their guiding principle in managing whales has shifted from conservation to a permanent ban on all commercial whaling and the moratorium has become a vehicle for this policy. In the press release following the decision to rejoin Iceland states that the IWC are now "a non-whaling commission rather than a whaling commission".

Fernholm is also fearful that the Icelandic issue will consume too much time at this year's plenary, meaning less time for tackling the "big issues".

Source: The International Harpoon - The Paper With a Point, High North Alliance, 23 July, 2001 (In press).