Whales and Nations: Environmental Diplomacy on the High Seas (Weyerhaeuser environmental books) by Kurkpatrick Dorsey

Author:Kurkpatrick Dorsey [Dorsey, Kurkpatrick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780295804941
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Published: 2013-11-15T02:00:00+00:00

DEPARTURES AND RETURNS

The decision by two of the European states to leave the IWC and the subsequent departure of Japan and threatened departure of Great Britain were directly tied to the countries' inability to work out a compromise on the quota division. If the quota issue could not be addressed quickly, the IWC would collapse after only a decade of operations, and only self-restraint, never abundant in the whaling industry, might save the industry from destruction. But in the crisis there was also an opportunity to fix some of the problems that had plagued the commission since its inception.

After the 1958 meeting of the IWC failed to significantly change the status quo, Norway decided to take the lead by calling a meeting of the pelagic whaling countries for late November of that year. Norwegian officials were worried because the Soviets were claiming the right, as a world power, to mount between three and six expeditions in the Antarctic—Britain had three, Japan had six, and Norway had nine.43 The Slava was still plying the seas, the huge Soviet Ukraine and Soviet Russia were about to join her, and two more factory vessels were in planning stages. The Norwegians expressed concern that the Antarctic stock could not take any more exploitation, but the Soviets were not moved. When the Norwegians suggested national quotas, the Soviets balked, arguing that that would open the field to other countries to claim a slice of the pie. The Norwegian delegation returned to Oslo nervous but hoping that the November talks might lead to a cap on Soviet and Norwegian expeditions.

Indeed, the November meeting seemed at first to exceed expectations. The Norwegians proposed that the Soviet catch be allowed to grow from 8 percent of the global quota to 16 percent, while the other pelagic states would gradually absorb reductions of 8 percent. The Soviet delegation explained, in apparently convincing terms, that they were going to take 20 percent in exchange for building just four new floating factories, with the final one replacing the Slava. The delegates then agreed that the arrangement would last seven years, starting with the 1959–60 season and covering the time frame of Soviet building plans. The other four states would work to parse the remaining 80 percent of the quota by 1 June 1959. If any other country sent an expedition to Antarctic waters, the deal would be void. A US diplomat in London reported that the meeting was “widely acclaimed as putting an end to cut-throat competition” that threatened to destroy the IWC.44

But the reality did not match the reports. The director of the Japanese fisheries agency came to the November meeting with a clear mandate to oppose quotas, so he could only report the 20 percent deal without recommending it, and he and his Dutch counterpart had opposed the others' proposals. For their part, the Dutch demanded 8 percent of the quota as necessary to make a profit, making agreement among the four non-Soviet pelagic whaling states almost impossible. The

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