Date: Thu, 16 Oct, 1997
Russia Seeks New Whaling Quota

MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia will seek to preserve its traditional hunters' current quota for killing whales when the International Whaling Commission meets in Monte Carlo next week.

Russia will ask the commission to permit the Bering Strait Chukchi tribesmen to catch 145 whales in 1998 -- the same number as this year, Vladimir Izmailov of the Agriculture Ministry's fisheries department said Thursday.

Years of illegal slaughter and the threat of extinction of some species led to a worldwide ban of commercial whaling in 1986, but traditional hunters were allowed to continue killing the whales for subsistence.

A legal loophole also allowed Japan and Norway to kill the whales for scientific reasons.


On September 10, 1997, the Russian government informed the IWC that it will allow Chukotski Autonomous Region natives in the far north-east of Siberia, to kill 5 bowheads from the Chukchi/Bering Sea stocks circa (8,150 animals). The Russian government gave that region permission to take 2 bowheads in 1996, but as of last week's trip to the region, I was unable to ascertain whether that take actually occured. I did document 6 bowhead carcassess in the Lorino/Providenya region, but 3 were older that 3-5 years and the age of the other three where undeterminable, but did not look quite that old.

Russia initially made such a request to the IWC in 1996, but withdrew their petition when it was determined they would not gain the necessary 3/4 support. The most concerning aspect of this allocation request involves the issue that, all the Chuckchi/Yupik people I talked with indicate that the gray whales they are currently permitted to take are not being made entirely available to the natives (used instead primarily for fox food), and that if it was strickly 'subsistence, there would be excess meat from the current 140 (ending this year) quota. From their estimate, 2 gray whales would feed a village of 1200 for an entire year (very relevent to the Makah Tribal request in the US.)..... there are not enough villages existing to justify the current quota allocation, so there is good reason to question why an additional 5 bowheads should be allocated to Russia.

It should be noted that the present fox farming operations are in decline, with at least 2 farms scheduled for closure in the coming months. There is a strong possibility that the Russian quota is being made to delay the closure of these fox farms, which profit the government-run 'Collective Farms' business. The Collective Farms include salmon harvesting and Reindeer harvesting operations, in conjunction with local gray whale and walrus hunting, under the guise of 'subsistence'.

As far as the argument about alternative meat not being avaliable in the region, I encountered relatively large sources of pork, processed canned meats, salmon, char and very large amounts of reindeer meat in the regions I travelled in. From my recent experience in this corner of Russia, I am convinced this request is being made to delay the closure of the remaining government Collective Farms-run fox farms in the Chokotski region.

Michael Kundu, Pacific Northwest Coordinator
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
arcturus@seanet.com



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