Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
provoke well-known non-claimants including China, India, Russia, and the United States to
conclude that these submissions represent extensions of claims made in 1959 on the eve of
the Antarctic Conference. The temptation then arises for non-claimants to 'walk away' from
the treaty and its key provision regarding sovereignty abeyance. The decision to submit
partial submissions on the part of claimant states is then a calculated one - to register one's
interest without alienating the non-claimant community. For claimants in particular, the
preservation of the ATS has been fundamental to their preservation of sovereignty claims,
and one would think that continental shelf mineral resources (with all the attendant
difficulties of recovery and exploitation) would not be worth any potential damage to the
ATS as an international regime.
Whaling is another major worry for the ATS that brings to the fore sovereignty politics. The
most visible manifestation of this tension exists between Australia and the non-claimant
Japan. The International Whaling Commission (IWC), the major regulatory body with
regard to whaling, created in 1986 a moratorium on commercial whaling in the Southern
Ocean. In 1994, the IWC sanctioned the creation of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary,
and this was widely supported in anti-whaling nations such as Australia. The root cause of
the conflict lies in a long-standing enmity between the two countries about a loophole
regarding whaling. There is scope for some 'scientific' whaling in the Southern Ocean, and
in 2005 Japan initiated a whale research programme (JAPRA II) and issued permits to
Japanese whaling companies. Disputing the number of whales that might need to be killed
for such research, Australian ire was further increased when it became clear that a great deal
of whale meat was being sold in Japanese fish markets. This is also a telling issue because it
reveals that science alone cannot determine legitimacy regarding Antarctic activity.
Within Australia, the legal process pertaining to whaling has become ever more prohibitive.
In 1980, the Whale Protection Act was introduced, designed to enhance protection for
whales within Australian waters. This was reinforced in 1999 with the Environment
Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, which established an Australian Whale
Sanctuary (AWS) encompassing all Australian territories including the Australian Antarctic
Territory. Whaling is prohibited as a consequence, and successive Australian governments
have expressed disapproval of Japanese whaling, scientific or not. In 2004, the Humane
Society International (HSI), a public interest organization, brought a case to the Australian
Federal Court against a Japanese whaling company, Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha Ltd. The HSI
argued that this whaling operator was killing whales illegally in the AWS, and in particular
in the waters off the Australian Antarctic Territory. The Court issued a judgment in favour
of HSI by concluding that, within the provisions of the EPBC Act and UNCLOS, the
