Whale deal on the table

ADAM LAU/Sea Shepherd

STINK BOMB: Sea Shepherd crew member Laurens De Groot hurls a bottle of butyric acid (rotten butter) at Japanese harpoon whaling ship the Yushin Maru No 1.

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Japan could stop whaling in the Southern Ocean within five years but New Zealand will first have to agree to allow whaling in Japan's coastal waters.

The proposal is in a discussion paper released by the International Whaling Commission yesterday, but it has been branded a waste of time by anti-whaling groups.

The proposal would phase out Japan's scientific whaling programme in the Southern Ocean reducing its catch by 20 per cent a year. Humpbacks and fin whales would not be hunted in the Southern Ocean during the phase-out.

In exchange, Japan would be allowed to take an unspecified number of minke whales off its North Pacific coast.

Another option, which has outraged anti-whaling groups, would allow Japan's "scientific" whaling programme to continue in the Southern Ocean if it adhered to IWC annual limits. Japan would also be allowed to hunt minke and sperm whales in the North Pacific.

"It is anticipated that, under any result, the total number of whales killed will be reduced," the discussion document says.

A New Zealand Government spokesman said it supported the IWC's efforts to reduce the whale kill but had not committed to any of the proposals. "We want to restrain whaling activities and the IWC process is one of several with which we are involved, and all share the ultimate aim of reducing whale kill numbers."

Greenpeace New Zealand spokeswoman Karli Thomas said the proposal was a waste of time.

"While a promise to reduce the number of whales killed sounds appealing in theory, the devil is in the detail and, unfortunately, much of the detail is missing."

Paul Watson, of anti-whaling group the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, said the proposal made little sense. "It's sort of like saying to bank robbers that you can't rob a bank in the city, but we'll let you do it in the country."