Native people of Greenland have won a long battle to extend their annual whale hunt to humpbacks, overriding objections from conservation-minded members of the International Whaling Commission.
The decision was made on Friday at the end of a contentious five-day meeting that failed to resolve a larger dispute: A proposal to suspend a quarter-century ban on commercial whaling in exchange for a promise by the three whaling countries — Japan, Norway and Iceland — to reduce the numbers they kill in defiance of the ban.
The commission decided on a one-year “pause” in negotiations on the commercial moratorium.
Greenlanders, like indigenous people from three other countries, are granted the right to hunt for food and to maintain traditional cultures, but only under strict quotas that are reviewed every five years.
They have been allowed to kill more than 200 of the common minke whale, but also 19 of the endangered fin whale. About half of Greenland’s 60,000 people are native to the icebound island.
For three years they have fought to include the humpback in their catch.
This year Denmark, speaking for its autonomous territory, offered to trade nine fin whales for nine humpbacks.
Opponents objected to expanding the list of allowed species and to potential damage to the whale-watching industry in the Caribbean, where the humpbacks roam. The US, one of four countries that have indigenous populations with whaling rights, supported Denmark.
The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society condemned the decision, saying some of the whale meat ends up on supermarket shelves. A 2008 investigation showed about one-fourth of the whales the Greenlanders caught were sold on the market in violation of the commission’s rules.
In the past, the five-year renewal of subsistence quotas have led to bitter clashes.
The US delegation sought to extend the period to at least seven years, but withdrew its motion when it was clear it would fail.
In a departure from normal procedure, the mayor of a small town in the northernmost area of Alaska made an emotional appeal to the commission to lift his people from “the constant uncertainty” of the periodic renewals.
“We the Inuit are the original conservationists and have sustainably hunted the bowhead whale for over 2,000 years,” Edward Itta said. “Our relationship to the bowhead whale is at the very core of our culture. It is who we are, physically, spiritually and as a community.”
“We Eskimos are like the bowhead. We are a part of the Arctic ecosystem,” he said. “All we ask is that this commission recognize our needs.”
US Whaling Commissioner Monica Medina said in a statement on Thursday that the quotas for native peoples “continue to be used as a bargaining chip by both pro- and anti-whaling governments seeking something in return.”
“There are no winners and losers in this,” New Zealand’s former prime minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer said.
“It ain’t over til it’s over, and even then it ain’t over. There will be a pause. We will resume discussions about this next year,” he told reporters.
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