商業捕鯨モラトリアムの撤回ならず　国際捕鯨委員会総会

【リマＡＦＰ＝時事】ペルーの首都リマで開催された国際捕鯨委員会（ＩＷＣ）の総会で２６日、商業捕鯨のモラトリアム（一時停止）を撤回する決議案が撤回された。４０年にわたって続くモラトリアムは引き続き有効となる。（写真は、ペルー・リマで開催された国際捕鯨委員会〈ＩＷＣ〉の第６９回総会のロゴ）
　また、捕鯨を世界の食料安全保障の源と宣言する別の決議案も、６０か国の代表者間で合意が得られず廃案となった。
　動物愛護団体「ヒューメイン・ソサエティー・インターナショナル」の中南米代表、グレテル・デルガディージョ氏は「商業捕鯨を再開するという暗く危険な決議案が取り下げられたことに安堵（あんど）している」と述べた。
　商業捕鯨のモラトリアムを覆す決議案を提出したのは、捕鯨国ではないアンティグア・バーブーダだった。同国は２０２６年にオーストラリアで開かれる次回総会でも、この問題を追及する方針を示している。
　デルガディージョ氏は、鯨肉を消費しない国々が捕鯨を支持していることについて「日本が、ＩＷＣから脱退したにもかかわらず、影響力を持ち続けていることを示している」との見解を示した。
　ＮＧＯによると、食料安全保障に関する決議案も、捕鯨の伝統がないが、日本と同盟関係にあるアフリカ諸国によって提出された。
　日本は２０１９年にＩＷＣを脱退。領海と排他的経済水域（ＥＥＺ）内で商業捕鯨を再開した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/09/27-17:01）

A four-decade-old moratorium on commercial whaling will remain in force after a proposal to overturn it was withdrawn Thursday at a meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in Peru's capital Lima.
Another proposal to declare whaling a source of global food security was also abandoned in a plenary session after failing to gain consensus among delegates from 60 countries.
We are relieved that the dark and dangerous resolution to resume commercial whaling has been withdrawn, said Grettel Delgadillo, Latin America representative for Humane Society International (HSI).
The first proposal was submitted by Antigua and Barbuda, which is not a whaling nation but has said it would pursue the matter at the next IWC meeting in Australia in 2026.
Delgadillo said pro-whaling stances by countries that do not consume whale meat demonstrates how Japan continues to influence the IWC despite not being a member anymore.
The food security proposal, in turn, was submitted by a host of African countries which also have no whaling tradition but are allies of Japan, according to NGOs.
Japan is one of three countries to continue whale hunting, along with Norway and Iceland.
It continued the practice for scientific purposes after the moratorium was introduced in 1986, killing hundreds of whales in the Antarctic and North Pacific.
After years of tensions took a toll on its international reputation, Japan quit the IWC in 2019 and resumed commercial whaling inside its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
An estimated 1,200 whales are killed by hunters every year.
Climate change is another threat to the creatures, with whale numbers in the North Pacific decreasing 20 percent between 2012 and 2021 due to a shortage in their main food source, plankton, according to an Australian study.
In the 20th century, nearly three million cetaceans were harpooned by humans, according to figures from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and several species became threatened.