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Japan's 10th "Scientific Whaling" Hunt Hauls 440 Minke Whales From The Antarctic



WWF Calls on Russia
Not to Resume Whaling

April 17th, 1998

GLAND, Switzerland -- WWF-World Wide Fund For Nature today appealed to Russian President Boris Yeltsin to maintain a firm stand against commercial whaling during his forthcoming visit to Japan. The Russian leader is due to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto tomorrow (Saturday). 

It is feared that Russian officials may have cleared the way for Russia to begin commercial whaling in the Pacific. The Japanese media reported earlier this week that Japan and Russia had agreed to set up a 'Cetacean Management Committee' to promote whaling and work towards national catch limits. China and Korea were also named as members of the committee.

"Russia is a critical player on the world stage, " said Dr. Claude Martin, Director General of WWF International. "We hope that President Yeltsin will not allow Russia's name to be linked to a practice that most nations of the world abandoned long ago."

The USSR stopped  commercial whaling in 1987, two seasons after the International Whaling Commission (IWC) moratorium went into effect. But Russia still holds the USSR's formal 'objection' to the moratorium and so is not bound by it.

Japan continues to hunt under the guise of "scientific whaling" and has been reprimanded by the IWC for doing so. It has been reported as opposing a proposal put forward to the IWC by the Irish Government which would ban whaling on the high seas but allow strictly limited coastal whaling. Japanese whalers are reported as having killed 438 minke whales in the Antarctic sanctuary this year.

A letter to President Yeltsin signed by  WWF, together with others from other international environmental organisations, asked the Russian leader to ensure that Russia did not join the Cetacean Management Committee, did not promote whaling and maintained its policy of no commercial whaling. 

The letter also urged President Yeltsin to reinforce Russia's support to the international moratorium on commercial whaling by withdrawing the USSR's formal 'objection' to the moratorium. Russia is a long-standing member of the IWC.

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