by Tony Best

in Anchorage, Alaska

Eastern Caribbean nations are spearheading a drive to create a new international body of parliamentarians (MPs) committed to the principle of the sustainable use of the world's marine resources.

But while the impetus for this new global body came on the margins of the annual conference of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), first in St Kitts-Nevis last year and seems to be moving forward at the current 59th IWC meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, this week, the organisation would focus its attention on global fisheries development and the utilisation of fish to guarantee food security, especially in developing countries.

Cedric Liburd, St Kitts-Nevis' Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, who is chairman of a working group that is drawing up plans for the proposed body of MPs, told a session of MPs and fisheries experts of like-minded countries that the creation of the new entity was vital to the effort designed to promote sustainable use of marine resources globally. It was not simply about whales but marine resources across the board.

"The objective is really to make sure that we have a group of MPs who would look at the sustainable development of our marine resources around the world," he said. "We are seeking to establish a communicator to carry our message throughout the world. We believe that sustainable use is the way to go and feel that this principled position is the one on which we need to move forward.

"By sustainable use we are talking about preventing any depletion of our marine resources while encouraging their utilisation in a responsible way, especially for food," he added. "We must use science in making decisions that would give us the assurance that when a catch of fish is made, there is more there for succeeding generations who must benefit from the earth's resources."

A range of countries in Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific have lodged their support for the parliamentary group. Included among them are Antigua, Benin, Cambodia, Dominica, the Gambia, Guinea, Coté D'Ivoire, Korea, Iceland, Morocco, Japan, St Lucia, St Vincent, Mali, Mauritania, Tuvalu, Mongolia, Norway, Kiribati, Togo and Senegal.

"We strongly support this effort," said Nao Thuok, director-general of Cambodia's Fisheries Administration in Phnom Penh. "We are a fishing nation and it is important that we encourage the responsible use of fishing resources so that we can feed our people wherever they are.

"People in Cambodia eat fish or are engaged in fishing almost every day. Such a parliamentary association can help preserve our resources while using them for food. Fish is essential to the diet of the people of Cambodia and we wish that to remain. That's why we are backing the proposed group."

Interestingly, the potential member-states of the parliamentary body belong to the pro-whaling or pro-sustainable use group within the IWC and regularly vote for the resumption sustainable use of the world's whale stocks. In essence, they are for resumption of a limited form of commercial whaling among species whose stocks, according to IWC marine scientists, are robust and not in danger of being depleted.

S. Suzuki, a member of Japan's parliament who led a group of lawmakers from Tokyo, told the Sustainable Use session on the eve of the IWC conference that his country fully backed the effort because of the clear need for it.

"We see it as necessary," he added.

Joji Morishita, director for international negotiations in Japan's Fisheries Agency in Tokyo, said the "issue of sustainable use needs to be understood by all people concerned" and that was where the new group would come in. But he was worried that critics were "making the issue of sustainable use and whaling too simple" and were unnecessarily dividing people and nations.

"The current anti-whaling television campaign in the Caribbean is a perfect example of that because it paints a false picture of the Caribbean as countries which were blindly going along with Japan, when in fact they are independent nations with their own points of view and policies," he said.

Joanne Massiah, Antigua's Minister of Marine Resources, said the parliamentary group would deal with the issues of sustainable use in a scientific way while avoiding the divisive, which was a fact of life in the IWC.