Hogarth, chair of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and also its US delegate, heads his last meeting of the 85-nation body from Monday in Portugal. He hopes it will inch ahead on his vision to bridge the deep divisions.

It's not an enviable task. Australia and Japan, arch foes on whaling, have both publicly rejected the contours of his grand compromise. At home, a top US congressman has sought to sack Hogarth.

Hogarth, a jovial 70-year-old academic with a deep Southern drawl from his native Virginia, said that all sides on the whaling dispute needed to realize that they cannot have everything.

"There's an old Southern expression, hold your nose and then move forward," Hogarth told AFP.

"If everybody wins, of course you have no solution," he said. "Everybody will have to suffer some pain, although I hope the whales don't."

The IWC imposed a global moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986. But Japan, which says whaling is part of its culture, kills more than 1,000 whales a year through a loophole that allows lethal research on the ocean giants.

While Norway and Iceland defy the moratorium altogether, Japan's whaling is especially controversial as much of the hunt takes place in the Antarctic Ocean despite protests by Australia and New Zealand and harassment by eco-militants.

Hogarth has floated a compromise under which Japan would scale down its "scientific" whaling in the Antarctic but enjoy the right to "coastal" whaling closer to home.

Top ministers in Tokyo and Canberra have criticized the plan, but Hogarth said all sides needed to realize they cannot do "business as usual."

"I think it's unrealistic to think Japan and Norway and Iceland are going to give up taking all whales, go to zero. I also think it's unrealistic for these countries to think they can go on killing the same number of whales," he said.

Hogarth criticized the size of Japan's catch -- suggesting the Japanese may be killing more whales "just to prove a point" -- and warned that global whale stocks were "in bad shape."

In 2007, Hogarth succeeded in persuading Japan not to start killing humpback whales, beloved by Australian and New Zealand whale-watchers.

But Hogarth said anti-whaling nations should set a more realistic goal of limiting rather than ending Japan's catch.

Congressman Nick Rahall, who heads the House Committee on Natural Resources, has strongly rejected Hogarth's strategy and had urged President Barack Obama to sack him.

Rahall, a member of Obama's Democratic Party, said Hogarth's proposal would permit a form of commercial whaling without guaranteeing that fewer whales would die.

Days before the meeting in Portugal, Rahall introduced legislation to require the next US commissioner to the IWC to be an Obama appointee -- a shot across the bow that Congress does not want Hogarth to stay.

Rahall voiced hope the next US commissioner and the Obama administration will "pursue a fresh course, and exert clear and unambiguous leadership that will bring an end to the negotiations that would sanction commercial whaling."

Phil Kline, an oceans campaigner at Greenpeace USA, gave Hogarth credit for bringing civility to IWC meetings, long notorious as shouting matches.

Hogarth, a dean at the University of Southern Florida, tapped a veteran UN peace negotiator, Alvaro de Soto, for advice on negotiating tactics.

But Kline said tension was simmering below the surface between pro- and anti-whaling camps.

"It's like two guys sitting and having a stare off and waiting for the other to blink so they can claim the other side destroyed the negotiations," Kline said.

Hogarth took the criticism in stride, acknowledging there are "strong, strong feelings of US citizens about the lethal take of whales."

"As chair, I've been trying to walk that narrow path of being fair to all 85 countries," he said.

"And I think there's a reason that other countries would like to see a resolution," he said. "I'm an optimist."

Share This Article With Planet Earth

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Related Links
Follow the Whaling Debate

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News