A former conservation minister says Te Ohu Kaimoana, the Maori fisheries trust, has no mandate from Maori to act as an apologist for Japanese whalers.
At last week's International Whaling Commission meeting in Morocco, the trust backed a compromise allowing Japan to take a commercial catch from its home waters in exchange for cutting back its scientific whaling programme in the Southern Ocean. The meeting failed to agree.
Sandra Lee told Waatea News the trust's delegation again tried to confuse indigenous whaling, which New Zealand has always supported, with Japanese commercial whaling in the Southern Ocean.
She says the covert agenda for the pro-whaling scientific lobby in the case of Te Ohu Kaimoana and the Japanese is more about resisting the proposition of sustainable protection of all species in Pacific Ocean and the Southern Ocean sanctuary.
Ms Lee says it's not just about whales, it's also about tuna. She is calling on Te Ohu Kaimoana to lead by example and be the kaitiaki for endangered marine mammals.
Driven by 'respect for tradition'
The trust says its stance is driven by a respect for tradition. Chief executive Peter Douglas says a solution will involve a combination of conservation, custom and commerce.
"We are in the business of trying to save whales but we also ... want to see people who have those sorts of traditions being able to dignify and maintain those traditions for themselves," Mr Douglas told Waatea News.
Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei says Te Ohu Kaimoana's stance is naive and undermines New Zealand's historic position.
