WHALING: JAPAN SEAMEN'S UNION ON IWC AND NISSHIN MARU

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 TOKYO 002109 SIPDIS STATE FOR D, G and OES/OA - MHAYES/JFIELD AND EAP/J USDOC FOR NOAA/NMFS - US IWC COMMISSIONER HOGARTH AND McCARTHY SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SENV EFIS KSCA IWC JA ETRD SUBJECT: WHALING: JAPAN SEAMEN'S UNION ON IWC AND NISSHIN MARU REF: A)05 TOKYO 2932; B) 06 TOKYO 2965 ¶1. As part of its annual pre-International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting "demarche" to Tokyo embassies, the All Japan Seamen's Union's (JSU) Suezo Kondo, Secretary for the Bureau of Fisheries, and Keiichi Imai of the Kanto Regional Branch visited EST Deputy and EST FSN on May 8 to preview the 70,000-member (30,000 Japanese and 40,000 foreign members) organization's position for this year's IWC Annual Meeting in Anchorage. Until last year, the JSU visited 25 embassies, but this year it is focusing on only 10 -- the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, the U.K., Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, plus two to be decided. ¶2. Kondo stressed that the JSU is a labor union seperate from the GOJ and private sector, and that its desire is best described as "well-regulated commercial whaling and crew members' job security." Having said that, he generally defended the GOJ's position including its proposal on small-type coastal whaling (STCW). Kondo underlined that STCW targets small companies and Japan requests only 50 minke whales annually from stocks that the nation considers abundant. He called it a double standard that the U.S. requests Alaskan aboriginal subsistance whaling while it does not allow STCW. ¶3. In addition to the JSU paper, Kondo handed out another IWC-Anchorage position paper of the JSU's umbrella organization, the U.K. based International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) in which he serves as chair of the Fisheries Division in the Asia-Pacific region. The ITF's paper states that "we strongly urge all the Member States to finally establish(SIC) the RMS....and finally, lift the unnecessary and counterproductive moratorium." ¶4. Referring to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's attack on Japan's research whaling fleet during the 2006-2007 season in the Antarctic Ocean, he recounted that two crew members' eyes were injured. The most dangerous tactic was trying to throw ropes and nets into the Nisshin Maru's propellers. Both the JSU and ITF papers condemn such dangerous activities, and in particular the JSU paper urges representatives of governments around the world to revoke Greenpeace's status as an observer to the IWC as the NGO also carried out a similar campaign last year. Asked about the Nisshin Maru's fire in February 2007, Kondo said that it was not confirmed, but almost certain that the fire was caused by a wire malfunction due to a short-circuit. ¶5. Text of the JSU's Position Statement for the IWC Anchorage Annual Meeting (as presented to Post): OPENING STATEMENT TO THE 59TH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE IWC 28-31 May 2007, Anchorage All Japan Seamen's Union On the opening of the 59th Annual Meeting of the IWC, All Japan Seamen's Union (JSU) would like to express its basic standpoint on the whaling issue. We sincerely ask the chairperson of the plenary and distinguished delegates from governments around the world to respect the principles of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW),to hold discussions fairly and calmly based on scientific evidence and to exclude any politics, economic issues and emotions from the discussions. Needless to say, the preamble to the ICRW stipulates that it 'desires to establish a system of international regulation for the whaling fisheries to ensure proper and effective conservation and development of whaling stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry'. Nevertheless anti-whaling nations neglected the decisions made by the Scientific Committee of the IWC and imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling, in effect since 1986, by force of numbers. Consequently commercial whaling has been suspended since 1987 and many JSU members who had been living on whaling fisheries have lost their jobs. Today 20 years later we can scarcely hide our deep disappointment at the fact that the IWC is heading in the wrong direction that has strayed from its original aims. Anti-whaling nations such as the US, the UK, Australia and New TOKYO 00002109 002 OF 004 Zealand who shut their eyes to their own past behaviour insisted that whales were on the verge of extinction and forced through a moratorium on commercial whaling, although such a statement had no scientific basis. Under the provisions of Article VIII of the ICRW, the government of Japan carried out Japan's Research Programme in the Antarctic (JARPA) and Japan's Research Programme in the North Pacific (JARPN) since 1987-1988 and 1994 respectively. Through these research programmes a vast array of scientific data were collected on more than 100 items including whales' population, distribution, species, body weight and length, age composition, sex ratio, maturity and the amount and types of food whales eat, which have been reported to the Scientific Committee every year pursuant to provisions of the ICRW. Seafarers who have been long engaged in capture and sighting survey under harsh weather and sea conditions are all JSU members. Without valuable scientific data collected by years of survey the Scientific Committee would have no ground and evidence on which it can make any analyses or judgment. If anti-whaling camp is adamant that the moratorium on commercial whaling should be sustained, they should start their own research activities and argue against a resumption of commercial whaling based on their own scientific evidence in the forum of the IWC. Why do they not do so? It is because they are afraid that scientific research would reveal whale resources are in a healthy condition. Conservation groups such as Greenpeace and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society who are notorious for their extreme anti-whaling campaign jointly used a boat to ram a Japan's whaling factory ship, 'the Nishhin Maru' and other boats when they were engaged in a new research programme, JARPA? launched in November ¶2005. Such sabotage repeatedly committed against Japan's whaling fleet clearly violates rules of the Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, 1972 (COLREGs) and their acts were no better than terrorism, endangering lives and safe operation of vessels. Such acts are totally unacceptable to the JSU. Despite the fact that the St Kitts Declaration on ensuring the safety of research activities was adopted by the IWC at its meeting in St. Kitts and Nevis last year, the Sea Shepherd continued its 'terrorist attacks' on Japan's whaling feet including the Nishhin Maru during the 2006-2007 research. Organisations such as Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd call themselves environmentalists but their acts are nothing but terrorism. They put in enormous time and effort in fund raising and planning for more radical attacks and performance in the future. The JSU strongly urges representatives of governments around the world to condemn such 'terrorism' and to revoke Greenpeace's status as an observer to the IWC. Being informed that the Greenpeeace campaign boat 'Esperanza' was about to enter a port in Japan in March this year, the JSU urged the Foreign Ministry of Japan not to allow the boat's entry into the Japanese port. This was to show that we can never forgive their repeated terrorist attacks on JSU members. Lastly but not least the JSU is determined to continue to publicise the importance of marine resources management including cetaceans and their sustainable use. END TEXT ¶6. Text of the ITF's Position Statement for the IWC Anchorage Annual Meeting (as presented to Post): IWC/59/OS ITF Opening Statement by the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) To the 59th Annual Meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) is a Global Union Federation that, among other things, works for the interests of fishers worldwide. The ITF strongly supports the concept of TOKYO 00002109 003 OF 004 responsible and sustainable use of all living marine resources. We have many times emphasised that our aim is to preserve the fishing industry by effective enforcement of international regulations. They present a framework which gives some hope of a future in our industry, where there are adequate quantities of both fish and cetaceans to support the livelihoods of people engaged in the industry. In this regard the ITF and its fisheries affiliates have supported the mandate to manage the sustainable utilisation . The ITF position is fully consistent with applicable international instruments and the principles of sustainable development. The 1992 United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development endorsed the principle of sustainable use of all living marine resources; the 1998 report entitled "the Ocean our Future: the Report of the Independent World Commission on the Oceans" urged implementation of existing regulations on sustainable use of marine resources. At the same time we would like to remind the meeting that Article 119 paragraph 3 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea regarding conservation of the living resources of the high seas clearly states: "States concerned shall ensure that conservation measures and their implementation do not discriminate in form or in fact against the fishermen of any State." The ITF believes that the industry should, in addition to complying with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries and other applicable international instruments, also be run in a manner which is consistent with the three pillars of sustainable development: environmental, social and economic. We would like also to remind that the Code is asking that the "States should ensure that fishing facilities and equipment as well as all fisheries activities allow for safe, healthy and fair working and living conditions and meet internationally agreed standards adopted by relevant international organizations." A sustainable fishing industry should be considered as one which not only manages the fishing resources but also provides fishers with safe work places and decent work. In our opinion a sustainable utilisation of all living marine resources creates a stable basis for the employment of fishers on decent terms and conditions, as well as making a valuable contribution to the world food supply. In this regard the ITF and its fisheries affiliates have supported the IWC's mandate to manage the sustainable utilisation of whale stocks. We believe that the sustainable utilisation of whale resources is of importance to secure enough food supply. If we look outside whaling to the wider world there is consensus that international rules and standards need to be enforced. In this regard, we are repeating again our plea to the IWC to fulfill its core mandate and, based upon the comprehensive data which has been collated by the IWC's Scientific Committee, to set a quota for those species which are sufficiently abundant to permit sustainable harvesting. It is regrettable that no significant progress has been made on this issue during the last meetings of the IWC. Whale stocks should also be taken into account when adopting the ecosystem approach to fisheries management. In setting quotas the IWC should be abiding by both the spirit and the letter of the 1946 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (as amended). We would like to remind the Annual Meeting that too many years have passed since the Revised Management Procedure was developed and endorsed and the continuation of the delay in reaching agreement on the Revised Management Scheme and the refusal to set a quota for these whale stocks, which on the basis of overwhelming scientific evidence are sufficiently abundant, undermines the legitimacy of the IWC as an organisation. We strongly urge all the Member States to finally establishing the RMS, which is important for the whale conservation and management, authorise and allocate a sustainable quota to preserve the ecosystem of marine resources, pursuant to the ICRW's objectives and, finally, lift the unnecessary and counterproductive moratorium. At the same time we would like to express our concerns that some NGO protests have moved from being peaceful to the point that they are TOKYO 00002109 004 OF 004 endangering the safety of life at sea. This is of grave concern, especially given the hostile environment in which they have taken place. The ITF strongly condemns such violent campaign activities and requests the IWC contracting Governments to take appropriate measures in avoiding such incidents in the future, central to which is the fulfillment of the IWC's core mandate. Thank you! END TEXT DONOVAN