(MC / 01-03-10)  Under a proposal recently released by International Whaling Commission chairman Cristian Maquieira, commercial whaling could be reintroduced on a limited basis and Japan would be able to continue hunting in the Antarctic.

The Maquieira proposal, developed but not fully endorsed by a "support group" of 12 countries including Australia and Japan, calls for suspending scientific whaling, the means by which Japan gets around the IWC ban on commercial whaling, this summer with quotas to catch up to 990 Southern Ocean whales.

The proposal needs approval from member governments and a two-thirds majority in the commission to pass. The support group has not established what quotas would apply in the Antarctic but the new proposal would leave other species such as the humpback and fin whale at risk as well as the numerous minkes that make up the overwhelming bulk of the Japanese fleet's catch.

The proposal, part of a wide-ranging suite of reforms to the IWC's moribund rules and procedures, would operate until the end of 2010. It goes shortly to an IWC working group meeting in Florida and, if approved, from there to the commission's annual meeting where, if approved, it would become the operating regime for governing both whaling and whale conservation activities.

Japan and Iceland hunt whales using scientific permits they issue themselves, using a clause in the moratorium that allows "lethal research." Norway opposes the ban and hunts outside IWC jurisdiction. The new proposal would bring all forms of whaling under IWC control and end the use of scientific permits, according to the draft. What a disaster for whales!