BlueViews - The BlueVoice Blog

Introduction

Tuesday, May 29, 2007 - Who Owns the Whales?
By Hardy Jones

Japan’s stated intention of hunting humpback whales led me to think that the time has come to stop thinking of whales, particularly the humpbacks which are individually known and loved, as commodities that anyone with a harpoon catcher boat can take at will.

The humpback whales they now intend to hunt are, by international law, part of the commons, anyone’s to take (subject to International treaties such as that which maintains the IWC).

I propose that these whales belong to the people along whose shore these magnificent animals migrate. Would it not be possible for stakeholders in French Polynesia, New Zealand, Australia and other nations of the South Pacific to “claim” these whales. They can identify them and have names for them. Small boat operators all over the Southern Ocean depend on the arrival of these whales for their livlihood as they bring excited tourists to see the whales.

The whales also support the travel, hotel and local restaurant industries. In some nations such as Fiji, Tonga and French Polynesia the presence of whales is worth millions in revenue from tourists.

The BlueVoice proposal is that Australia, New Zealand, French Polynesia et al, as nations, or the towns of Eden or Sidney or Moorea, as ports from which thousands of whale watchers depart, state a claim to these whales saying they are part of their cultural and economic fabric. On this basis they could challenge Japan’s right to hunt these whales.

The same could be true of nations and towns of the Caribbean and the eastern coast of the United States and Canada regarding a hunt by Greenlanders of humpbacks which winter in the Caribbean and then travel along the N.E. coast of North America as far as Greenland.

There is no law that would allow such claims. It’s time we re-examine the laws which govern whales in international waters.

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