Japan Quits Whaling Panel to Protest Vote

Commissioner Tatsuo Saito of Japan abruptly quit the International Whaling Commission today to protest what he called its “constant vote against Japan.”

Saito announced his resignation after the advisory group’s annual conference approved three resolutions condemning whaling for so-called scientific research by Japan, Iceland and South Korea. He said Japan would be “infuriated” by the vote.

Most of the 32 countries at the conference said there was no worthwhile research to be done by killing whales and that “scientific” whaling was a disguise for commercial slaughter.

The commission, a 42-nation body, voted in 1982 to ban commercial whaling from the end of 1986 until the completion in 1990 of an assessment of whale populations in the world’s oceans.

Despite the ban, the commission says 6,361 whales were killed last year. Japan took 2,769, the Soviet Union is believed to have taken a similar number, South Korea took 70, Norway 380, Iceland 116 and Eskimos in Greenland and Siberia took 347.

Japan is the only major market for whale meat.

The conference voted 19 to 6 on Thursday to approve a U.S. proposal tightening a loophole allowing the killing of whales for scientific research.

“With that vote, the key fight was over for this year,” said Mark Palmer of the Whale Center in Oakland, Calif., one of 57 anti-whaling groups attending the conference as observers.