LAT: Carribean States Could See Backlash if Whaling Resumes

Carribean States Could See Backlash if Whaling Resumes
By Carol J. Williams, Times Staff Writer
June 19, 2006

FRIGATE BAY, St. Kitts and Nevis — Six Caribbean states that support Japan's drive to resume commercial whaling are highly dependent on tourism and could suffer boycotts or lost business as a result of their vote, environmentalists and tourism promoters said Monday.

A day after Japan mustered the first International Whaling Commission vote in support of ending a 20-year moratorium on hunting, countries that oppose the killing also cautioned the small islands that their most vital industry could feel the sting of angry whale lovers.

"People come to this region to see nature at its best," Joth Singh, director of wildlife and habitat for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said of vacationers drawn to the Caribbean's pristine beaches and lush volcanic mountains. "Individuals for whom whaling is abhorrent will think twice about going to a destination where their values are not shared."

The pro-whaling island states, beneficiaries of more than $100 million in Japanese aid over the last eight years, have argued throughout the annual meeting that whale hunting and whale watching can coexist. They express little concern that backing Tokyo's campaign to overturn the whaling ban could hurt their image as eco-tourist destinations.

All six Caribbean island members of the IWC — Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines — voted Sunday for a declaration deeming the whaling ban "no longer necessary." The declaration passed 33-32....

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-whales20jun20,0,6356198.story?coll=la-home-headlines

'Cause I'm totally on board with that.

. . . that a consumer level boycott of Japanese goods has not already started. Seems like the only way to put pressure on the government to stop this nonsense. I personally will not buy a Japanese car (though I lust after a Toyota hybrid) until they stop killing whales.

Boycots are problematical at best, and not a lot of people relate to whales.

though it's still relatively new. A more general boycott of Japanese goods would quickly make whaling a losing economic proposition.

This was remarkably effective, as Nissui sold the whaling fleet a couple of months ago. Similar steps could be taken against the Carribbean nations and other landlocked nations receiving Japanese largesse.

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have left.

These are economically depressed areas that don't have much for resources. They depend on marine resources. Yes, tourism is a big part of their economies, but they are small nations and are very sensitive to all sorts of stuff affecting tourism (like hurricanes, terror threats that scares people from traveling abroad, etc). I don't like whaling any more than other types of hunting, but if it's done as a matter substenance, I'm all for it, at least until there's a better solution. Instead of boycotting them we should be pressuring our governments to invest in them, so their economies aren't so dependent on tourism. That's what the Japanese are doing.

well maybe the toyota prius should be declared a whale species and harpooned :-)

Msongs

can you sing?
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"The pro-whaling island states, beneficiaries of more than $100 million in Japanese aid over the last eight years...."

Barbados is no Silicon Valley, they don't have the luxury of rejecting economic aid.

The freakiest thing that they said was that the whales are responsible for the depletion of the oceans fish supply's. Got to be the stupidest thing i've heard lately.

Barbados is not supporting whaling,
and they refused repeated "invitations" by the Bush** regime to join the Coalition of the "Willing".

Just as an FYI, one of the first North American tourists to Barbados was none other than George Washington. The home where he stayed while on the island is currently being renovated by the Barbados National Trust and turned into a museusm.

who would call off their vacation to the Caribbean because Japan is whaling?

Because I wouldn't.