Battling for the Leviathans

Some significant steps are taken to save the whales

To environmentalists, Interior Secretary James Watt sometimes seems to be an avenging Ahab, citing the Bible and warring against nature. But that image may be unfair. Last week, with the Secretary's blessing, the U.S. came to the help of Watt's surprising friends, the whales.

The occasion was the annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in the English seaside resort of Brighton. On the street, save-the-whales demonstrators waved placards, chanted slogans and even floated a 110-ft. inflatable whale named Big Flo. Inside the Victorian-style Brighton Metropole Hotel, the delegates from 31 member nations pondered the fate of the leviathans. The commission, formed after World War II to regulate whaling, has been setting annual quotas ever since. For this season the permissible commercial take had dwindled to 13,851 whales, 80% of them small minkes. That was less than a third of the total eight years ago. Hunting of such endangered species as the blue, bowhead, right and humpback is now forbidden altogether, except by or on behalf of Eskimos and other native peoples, while sperms may be taken only by coastal-based ships.

Still, marine biologists worry about the whale's future. Chief U.S. Delegate Tom Garrett, a childhood friend of Watt's and longtime defender of the whales, who was appointed at his urging, said that far too little is known about the populations of various species or their reproductive habits to permit the slaughter to go on, even at reduced levels. He backed a British proposal for a moratorium on all commercial whaling.

The Japanese, who along with the Soviets operate the only large ocean going whaling fleets, insisted that enough is known to set safe limits that will ensure the animals' survival. Whaling, they added, was important to their economy and food supply; they felt no legal or moral obligation to accept a ban.

Conservationist groups replied that the Japanese estimates were grossly overstated. But on the issue of the moratorium, their words, including President Reagan's plea to save "these magnificent creatures," were to no avail. It failed to get a required three-fourths majority. So did another proposal to stop all whaling in the North Atlantic.

But at week's end the antiwhaling forces won two significant victories. Over Japan's objections, the conference set a "zero quota" on all sperm whaling in the Southern Hemisphere and the North Atlantic. As a gesture to the Japanese, a decision on the North Pacific was deferred until the spring. Said Garrett: "This might be the final curtain for sperm whaling."

The delegates also agreed to outlaw "cold" (or nonexplosive) harpoons on minke whales, starting with the 1982-83 season. Conservationists claim these weapons prolong the animal's final agony, but the Japanese insist that faster-killing grenade-tipped harpoons damage too much of the flesh and are dangerous to the hunters. The decision gives them time to develop a less damaging, safer explosive harpoon.

The antiwhalers were not so successful on the issue of next year's overall quotas. The total number of whales that can be legally taken was reduced by only about 500. Still, if this trend continues, whaling may eventually become so uneconomical that even the persistent Japanese will be forced to drop it.

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