Japan fails to ease whaling restrictions as great shark earns protection

0 Comments | AFP, October, 2004

BANGKOK (AFP) — Japan's proposal to expand commercial hunting and trade of minke whales was harpooned by a UN convention regulating the wildlife trade, which also upgraded the protection status of the great white shark, made infamous by the Jaws films.

Japan had been pushing hard for backing from some of the 166 signatories of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) for its plan to ease the total trade ban on some minke whale populations.

In some of the most heated debate at the Bangkok-hosted 13th CITES summit, Japan urged parties not to submit to the "cultural imperialism" of western governments, many of which opposed the proposal.

Japan insisted minke whales had recovered sufficiently in three stocks -- in the West Pacific,...