PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
INTERNATIONAL WHALING COMMISSION (16 June 2003)

That this House welcomes the United Kingdom's continued opposition to whaling, and its support for the moratorium on commercial whaling agreed by the International Whaling Commission meeting in Berlin; welcomes also the adoption of the Berlin Initiative, co-sponsored by the United Kingdom, which will widen the IWC's conservation remit and allow it to recognise and react to the range of threats faced by whales, dolphins and porpoises; supports the establishment of regional whale sanctuaries in the South Pacific and South Atlantic; recognises the serious threat to cetacean populations from the ongoing whaling activities of a small number of countries, particularly Japan and Norway and proposed resumption of 'scientific whaling' by Iceland; hopes that these nations will continue to work within the IWC rather than breaking away to manage whaling issues alone; and notes the recent report, Mercury Rising, by the Environmental Investigation Agency, that presents evidence of health-threatening levels of mercury contamination in cetacean products on sale in Japanese supermarkets and hopes that this will help persuade the Japanese Government to impose strict limits on its whaling activities and imports of whale products from other nations.

Sponsored by:
Mrs Helen Clark (Labour)