Tuning violins and whales
I have a friend who is far more musical than I am. In fact, he is very musical and I, well I have a very poor ear. Now he was reminding me that when he tunes a piano or a violin, the difference between a very small turn of the tensioning keys results in very different results.
At one point the violin, for example delivers a melodious and beautiful sound. Tighten the string a small amount more and the sound, well the sound is very attractive to cats and other night prowlers.
At the IWC a small group of scientists are trying to tune the catch limit algorithm that the IWC has been testing for the last few years. This is the ‘black box’ into which information about whales in put in at one end, and quotas are ejected at the other end.
Just like a violin, the black box’s precautionary nature relies on the correct tuning level being selected, and in 1991 the IWC decided what that would be. It is science, but it is also policy based on science. The IWC Commission is the policy body that decides how precautionary whaling should be. At the moment it says there should not be any commercial whaling and that’s why we should have full compliance with the moratorium.
Some nations are now agitating for a resumption of commercial whaling and the tuning level now becomes important again.
Now none of the whalers really liked the tuning level that the IWC decided on in 1991, and so, for example, every when the Norwegian Government has illsued itself with its own quota, it has used a more liberal tuning of the black box until it delivers the answer that was requested.
Now the IWC is faced with quotas that the whalers are demanding, and that some others are willing to concede to them. But what numbers are we talking about and what caterwauling tuning was used? Was it the tuning level that the IWC agreed on, or is it some new level that the whalers want?
Its important because if we are presented with “’the black box’ would give ‘X’ number of whales, but look, we shall only give the whalers X minus Y whales, you should be grateful for our prudence”, we would be entitled to ask ‘How did you get X in the first place?’
Nations should be wary of the ‘sleight of hand’ of scientific tricks. The scientist can be just as dangerous to a whale as the harpoon, and neither is independent of the person who wields them.
If you want to join in with the IWC discussions, we have a quiz that you can do. See if you can qualify to be a modern day Commissioner and take our quiz.
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