IWC unlikely to adopt new science-based scheme: Komatsu.

Japan Weekly Monitor, May, 2002

SHIMONOSEKI, Japan, May 15 Kyodo

Participants in the general meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) are unlikely to reach an accord on a new science-based international whaling monitoring system known as the Revised Management Scheme (RMS), a Japanese government official said Wednesday.

The differences that remain between pro-whaling nations and antiwhaling ones over the RMS essentially negate the likelihood the monitoring system will be adopted at the general meeting, Masayuki Komatsu, a Fisheries Agency counselor and member of the Japanese delegation to the IWC, told a press conference in Shimonoseki, western Japan.

The IWC annual meeting began in the former whaling town in Yamaguchi Prefecture on April 25 with its...