Cedric Liburd (photo by Erasmus Williams)

International Whaling Commission (IWC) officials and Caribbean fisheries ministers have been meeting in Dominica in preparation for the 59th IWC conference next year.

Caribbean countries have been accused by developed countries of siding with pro-whale countries like Japan in return for financial and technical assistance.

“We are speaking to data, we believe that science should be the way forward but instead of it they are really focusing on the emotional aspect of it,” Liburd said.

“We have all these tourists coming here, what are we going to feed them with, are we going to ask the United States to send the fish here,” he asked, adding “That's not what we want. We to want to be able to benefit from tourist coming to our country and that's what we have to look at.”

Liburd said that the region would like to see the exploitation of the whaling industry for the benefit of the Caribbean.

“If we feel that way then we should go that way and I am in full support of it. All I am saying is that it should be managed and managed properly,” he said, noting it is time the Caribbean started making use of the resources available to it.

“Our move is to use the resources that are around us in order to help create new fisher men and at the same time help feed ourselves,” Liburd said, adding that the fisheries industry can be used as a viable option given the problems associated with the sugar and bananas industries.

“The Windward Islands have suffered with their bananas. St Kitts and Nevis have suffered with their sugar industry. Our tourism industry is moving at a pace and we don't want to see the importation of fish coming into our country.”

Meanwhile, Dominica’s IWC commissioner, Lloyd Pascal, is calling on the sub-regional Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) to develop a united approach in responding to a proposal by France to develop a whaling sanctuary in the Caribbean.

Pascal suggested that the sanctuary would be an intrusion on Dominica's territorial waters.