19. HUMANE KILLING

(from "Chairman's Report of the Thirty-Second Annual Meeting")


The Scientific Committee had reviewed new information with respect to minke whale operations and the Secretary reported arrangements for the Workshop agreed by the Commission last year, which will be held in the coming Autumn. The Commission agreed that the arrangements should proceed.


Prohibition on the use of cold grenades for killing cetaceans
Australia stated its view that whales are now, because of the change of emphasis in the industry, taking longer to die and in great pain. This results from the desire to improve the quality of product and it believes that the position of the IWC in this respect is morally indefensible.

The UK stated that it found the death times in the Norwegian minke fishery unacceptably long. Japan emphasised that it is in the process of developing new methods, and Norway and Iceland indicated that they too are working on improvements. Spain spoke of the serious economic consideration in the loss of meat in fin whales taken with explosive harpoons, although it also agreed with the need to find the most humane methods. The Technical Committee decided by separate majority votes to recommend adoption of two sentences forming a new paragraph in the section on Capture in the Schedule. The first sentence was for an immediate ban on the use of cold grenade harpoons for all whales except minke:

'The killing for commercial purposes of whales, except minke whales, using the cold grenade harpoon shall be forbidden from the beginning of the 1980/81 pelagic and 1981 coastal seasons.'

The second sentence extended this prohibition to mince whales in the following seasons.

The Commission accepted the first proposal by 17 votes in favour to 3 against, with 4 abstentions, but the second failed to obtain a three-quarters majority, receiving 14 votes in favour and 6 against, with 4 abstentions.

After further comment from Japan on the need to allow sufficient time to carry out trials on the new devices being developed, the Commission adopted the Resolution shown in Appendix 11 put forward by Australia, seconded by the USA, South Africa, Sweden and the UK. This resolves to consider a Schedule amendment to include minke whales next year.

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