さあ！諸君！捕鯨問題だ！

さて、前年の日本向け鯨肉輸出摘発スキャンダル、鯨肉貿易規制をうながす
IWC大会決議、９月のベイカー論文サイエンス誌発表という事態を受けて、
翌年の総会から、違反小委員会に関する部分を引用しておきます。

水産庁は当然、IWC枠外での捕鯨活動と日本の関係を良く知っていたのだろうね。

REP. INT. WHAL. COMMN 46, 1996 15頁
＜＜Chairman's Report of the Forty-Seventh Annual Meeting＞＞
1. DATE AND PLACE
The 47th Annual Meeting of the Commission was held in
Dublin, Ireland, 29 May-2 June 1995, at the kind invitation
of the Government of Ireland. Dr P. Bridgewater (Australia)
chaired the proceedings.

以下、日本側から沿岸捕鯨についてのものすごく非商業的な提案があって
興味深いのだけれど 　 略

REP. INT. WHAL. COMMN 46, 1996 19頁
［Reports from Contracting Governments on the sources of
and trade in whale meat and products］
The Infractions Sub-committee concentrated on information
and problems concerning the trade in whale meat and other
whale products on the basis of the Resolution adopted by the
Commission at the last year's Annual Meeting. Japan and
Norway stated that they believed that it was inappropriate to
discuss methods relating to control of trade in whale
products in this Sub-committee as they consider this issue to
be outside the scope of the Convention and that no IWC rules
exist that can be violated. In particular, Japan pointed out the
relevance of Article I of the Convention to this
interpretation. However, Japan had provided information to
the meeting because the Japanese Government was making
serious efforts to prevent illegal trade in a national
context.
　 Available information was summarised and three
Governments submitted reports indicating that there was no
illegal trade in whale products by their countries.
The minutes of an informal meeting on matters relating to
the control of whale products were made available. The
meeting was held in Japan from 19-20th April and involved
experts from seven countries (Japan, People's Republic of
China, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Norway, Russian
Federation and the USA). The meeting was informal and the
report of the meeting does not necessarily reflect the official
position of the Government to which meeting participants
belonged.
　 The results of a feasibility study to examine the possible
application of using mtDNA techniques to identify two
species samples of eight products from the retail market were
also presented. It was stressed that the results were
preliminary and that further laboratory investigations were
underway. However, it noted that the information presently
available did not indicate any illegal trade.
　 Information was provided on known smuggling attempts
of whale meat investigated and blocked by the Japanese
authorities. Japan noted that it had involved a considerable
amount of effort to compile this report from the original
records.
　 Denmark stated that despite some rumours circulating
among NGO's at this meeting that Greenlandic whale meat
had been exported for commercial purposes, it had no
information of any such exports.