‘JAPAN SHOCKED BY DECISION TO BAN WHALING IN 1986,’ the headline said, stating negatively the news that the International Whaling Commission had finally voted for a moratorium on all commercial whaling. In Brighton, England, the night after the IWC ordered a phased halt to the slaughter; of the whales, there was a party that I really would like to have attended. The conservation forces reportedly popped cham- pagne corks and whooped it I know how sweet a party it must have been, because I was there last year at the IWC meeting when the ban on hunting of Sperm whales was passed and we had a party that lasted until dawn. Even back then, it was possible tote that the total ban on commercial. whaling which had eluded us: for a decade was within reach in one more year. And voila! It has hap pened! The longed-for, ached-for, prayed-for ban! I don't know. There was a tremendous this year, probably more so. tug-of-war within On the one hand, there was the analysis that Japan couldn't afford to pull out of the IWC. As an advanced industrial nation, heavily dependent on trade, the country belongs to literally hundreds of international organizations, from cartels to defence alliances. To withdraw from one — such as the IWC — is to lose standing on all the other bodies to which Japan belongs, by revealing itself aS a quitter, a country that can’t be trusted to play by the rules unless it gets its way. More concretely, there Packwood-Magnuson Amendment, which would immediately strip the Japanese of half their fishing privileges within the American 200-mile limit if they disregarded an IWC rung. If they kept it up, within a year they would be booted out of the area en- tirely, and whaling is but a a choice of Cscargols on Onion Soup, and our Salad , Fler of Saloon lemon, butte on frech Sole for — by Bob Hunter Are the whales safe? stinall part of Japan's overall fishery. Likewise, the European €ommon Market has a law prohibiting trade with any nation that violates ITWC edicts. And the Convention for International Trade in Endangered Species, signed by 120 countries, supports any FWC decision. This was the hardball part, the realpolitic of ecology ina divided world. Yet there were some conservationists who were against pushing Japan — or Norway or Russia or any of the ‘other whalers — against the wall. They feared that the whaling nations might pull out, the IFWC would collapse, and any hope for exercising control over the whalers would be lost. I remember, at the time, feeling an oppressive sense of being forced to make really, should have to deal with. If we, the con- servationists, made a wrong move, would the extinction of the whales be our fault because we were a bit too clever, because we crowded our opponents too hard? It was a thought that made you tremble. Yet what choice was there 12 put to try to win? So we pushed with all our might — and this year we made it! Japan and Norway have stated, since the moratorium was passed last month, that they both intend to continue whaling. Russia hasn't said what it will do. Otherwise, the ban has been greeted with a ringing silence by other former whalers. If Japan and Norway persist in whaling beyond 1986, they will become outlaws — New Age targets of opportunity, just as the slave traders were in their time. It is as simple as that. And in the background, everyone knows it. Last year, I predicted that by 1982, “it will be all over but the spouting.” Was that too optimistic? I don't think so. 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