Forty environmental non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that work in Latin America requested their governments to take diplomatic actions against the killing of whales under supposed scientific purposes. The petition was presented jointly to all Latin-American commissioners of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) as well as members of the Buenos Aires Group, and was supported by 40 NGOs from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela, as well as international organisations that conduct work in the region.
Elsa Cabrera, executive director of the Cetacean Conservation Centre of Chile (CCC-Chile), stated that "the vast support of the Latin-American NGOs is a strong message to our governments about the need to publicly reject the so-called "scientific whaling" operations, an activity that is not regulated and that it is conducted without any mechanisms of control in waters that paradoxically are a whale sanctuary." In 1994, the Southern Ocean was declared whale sanctuary by the IWC.
In the letter the NGOs affirmed, "that under the complex framework of the negotiation process to define the future of the IWC, the continuity of whaling operations under special permit is an unacceptable mechanism of pressure that undermines the efforts to reach a successful agreement as well as the governability of the IWC."
Therefore the organisations requested the Latin American governments that are also members of the Buenos Aires Group to take diplomatic actions with the aim to save the life of hundreds of whales in the southern hemisphere.
The petition adds that "since the implementation of the moratorium on commercial whaling, the government of Japan has captured more than eight thousand whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary under supposed scientific purposes and that since the beginning of the second phase of Japan's Whale Research Program in the Antarctic (JARPA II) in 2006, the annual quota of Antarctic minke whales has reached similar levels of the commercial whaling quota used for this species before the adoption of the moratorium."
Roxana Schteinbarg, executive coordinator of the Whale Conservation Institute of Argentina (ICB) declared that "how can we think of a future for the IWC if Japan is not willing to stop or at least significantly reduce the number of whales killed under scientific disguise? We are confident that our governments will pay attention to our concerns and begin actions that can stop the Japanese whaling fleet."
The organisations emphasised that "although the IWC bans the killing of females with calves, during the last 'scientific whaling' season in the Southern Ocean (2008/2009), Japan captured 679 minke whales from which 304 corresponded to females and 63 per cent of these whales were pregnant. Additionally four of the captured whales were lactating females whose calves could have been dependant of their mothers and consequently could have died afterwards."
Additionally, the NGOs highlighted that the operations of the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean is an increasing threat to the delicate Antarctic ecosystem, it is not economically viable and depends heavily on governmental subsidies. Therefore the NGOs stated, "it is justifiable to consider its elimination during the negotiation process of the IWC."
Finally, the NGOs declared that "the negotiation process to define the future of the IWC must not diminish the strong and permanent commitment of the Latin American countries with the global moratorium on commercial whaling and the ending of the so-called 'scientific whaling' operations."
The petition was presented simultaneously in all 15 countries and denotes the concerns of the Latin American civil society regarding the negotiation process of the IWC.
