June 14, 2002
U.S. wants IWC decision
reversed
The United States wants
the International Whaling Commission to reconsider its decision not to renew
permits that would allow native peoples in Alaska and U.S. to hunt bowhead whales.
The IWC made the decision
last month at its meeting in Shimonoseki, Japan.
"By the end of the
year, the United States will cooperate with other countries and make efforts
to reverse the results of Shimonoseki," said Kevin Maher, Minister-Counselor
for Environment, Science and Technology at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo.
Options include calling
a special meeting of the IWC later this year or holding a mail-in vote on the
issue.
Bowhead whaling in Alaska
will continue, regardless of the decision, said Jacob Adams, chief executive
officer of Arctic Slope Regional Corporation.
"Our traditions will
survive," said Adams, who is also a whaling captain, in a public speech
reported by the Anchorage Daily News.
The U.S. commerce department
was to formally ask the IWC to reconsider its vote this week.
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June
14, 2002
LIA to vote on Voisey’s
IIBA
On June 24, members of
the Labrador Inuit Association will vote on whether to ratify on an Inuit Impact
and Benefits Agreement with the mining giant Inco Ltd.
Ratification would help
pave the way for development of the rich Voisey’s Bay nickel, cobalt and
zinc deposit.
The deal includes a $123-million
compensation package for Labrador Inuit over the projected 30-year lifetime
of the mine.
It also includes a commitment
to fill between 25 per cent and 40 per cent of the jobs during the construction
and development phase with Inuit workers, giving preference to residents of
Nain, Labrador.
The federal government
is expected to kick in $50 million to train Inuit and Innu to work at the mine.
About 400 jobs will be
created at the mine and mill at Voisey’s Bay.
Work is expected to begin
in July with the construction of roads and a temporary port and camp.
Inco bought the Voisey’s
Bay deposit in 1994, but the mining giant was only able to strike a deal with
the Newfoundland-Labrador government this week.
The two parties now have
a deal that would give Inco the right to operate Voisey’s Bay on the condition
that it agrees to build a facility to process the ore in Newfoundland.
Until this plant is finished,
Inco will send ore to its smelters in Ontario and Manitoba.
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June
14, 2002
Ice rams house
Three weeks ago, Zona Lie’s
family ran out of their house in Kotzebue, Alaska, to avoid being crushed by
a gigantic sheet of ice, the Anchorage Daily News reports.
On May 27, while members
of the Lie family were still in bed there was a pounding at the door from a
municipal official warning them of the danger.
Zona Lie called 911 and
yelled, "There is ice coming into my house!"
She and her four children
barely escaped the ice that slammed into their house.
When spring breakup comes,
Kotzebue and the peninsula it sits on are surrounded by massive chunks of ice
flowing from surrounding lakes through a narrow channel to Kotzebue Sound and
the Chukchi Sea.
Lie’s house on Shore
Avenue sits at the edge of Kotzebue Sound.
During a normal year, the
ice is "rotten" by the time it breaks loose from the lakes and drifts
down.
But this year a week of
record-breaking temperatures in May set huge sections of solid, still-thick
winter ice adrift. These huge sheets stayed in one piece as they moved downstream
into Kotzebue Sound.
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June
14, 2002
Whaling overload in Norway
Fishing officials in some
parts of northern Norway have suspended their annual minke whale hunt because
the quantity of the catch has exceeded the processing plants’ ability to
handle it.
The Norwegian newspaper,
Aftenposten, reports whaling stations in these areas simply can’t handle
any more whales. One facility on the Lofoten Islands was destroyed by a suspicious
fire last year and remains out of operation.
Officials say that 306
minke whales already have been caught this season, nearly half the total quota
of 671.
Most of the whales have
been speared in the most northerly areas of the whaling grounds.
Whaler Harald Dahl attributed
the good catch to better weather in the Barents Sea this year.
"But many whalers
also reported that they’re seeing a lot of whales," Dahl said. "Some
boats are bringing in five or six whales a day. The catch is simply so good
that they can’t keep up."
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