According to the Japan Fisheries Association (JFA), African countries are now asking equal opportunity to participate in the discussions of the International Whaling Commission.
The African argument claims that expensive fish is exported to rich countries, while the consumption of other fish by a large number of marine mammals (dolphins and whales) is detrimental to the African people.
There are two important points in support of the above argument advanced by the leaders of the African Group, such as the Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture of the Republic of Guinea at the 2002 Annual Meeting in Shimonoseki, Japan, and the Minister of Animal Production and Fisheries Resources of the Ivory Coast at the 2004 Annual Meeting in Sorrento, Italy. At the 2005 meeting in Ulsan, Korea, several African commissioners (Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Benin, Cameroon and Gabon) unanimously emphasised the vital importance for their countries of the principle of sustainable use of marine living resources including whales.
In many African countries millions of people are suffering from starvation or famine today. Such a phenomenon is closely related to the general deterioration of the environment which puts in jeopardy the human habitat through global warming and desertification, the disappearance of rain forests, and meadows and pastures rendered to wasteland. All these elements lead to the obvious lack of animal protein for the local population. Now that the limit of land exploitation is being reached, it is an obligation to pay more and more attention to marine living resources
In African coastal countries, in effect, the production of fish is being improved by concentrating efforts on the fisheries sector. Expensive species are exported to the markets of developed countries (USA, EU and Japan) while local inhabitants must be content with the small pelagic species (mackerel, horse mackerel, sardine, etc.) which can be harvested in large quantities.
But the fact is that very often, along the coastline of the African continent, the appearance of a large number of cetaceans, including dolphins, suggests that the resources of these small pelagic species are partly but steadily consumed by those cetaceans. In order to get rid of such a negative impact by whales on the fish resources, a series of research programs is urgently required. According to the Africans, , only Japan is helping effectively for the time being (i.e. cetacean research programs by means of sighting surveys off the coast of West Africa, in particular the Republic of Guinea).
In case the research discovers and proves the negative impact of whales on fish resources, the Africans would like to reserve the right to catch whales in a sustainable manner for themselves and future generations who might have the necessity of exploiting whale resources. If certain abundant resources of whale species, which eat so much fish, can be rationally used, “two birds could be killed with one stone”: fish resources can be protected against attacks by whales and direct benefits can be realised from whale products.
