No to commercial whaling -this year
Okay so after two days of closed-door discussions delegates to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) were unable to reach consensus on a proposal that would see the legitimization of commercial whaling.
The moratorium (ban) still stands and Japan, Iceland and Norway continue to whale outside of the sanction of the IWC. Some colleagues are concerned that the whalers may still try and pull something out of a hat, but it looks like its over - for now
It has become clear that, despite many presentations by the pro-whaling advocates, the majority of nations were not convinced by the arguments that any whales being killed under commercial whaling was acceptable.
Thankfully nations also rejected the view that quotas could be given whilst the moratorium still stood. It became obvious to delegates that the moratorium was fundamental to any allocation of quotas, be they in the thousands or the hundreds, or even tens.
So hats off to the Latin Americans, Australia, India and many of the Europeans - well done for standing up for the whales and your public's
The Chairman has kept the agenda item open so that 'delegates can discuss how to move forward next year', but we sincrely hope that its effectively dead as a full deal this year.
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What has been achieved here... the whales get nothing.
Did they get nothing, for the sake of the moratorium on commercial whaling? Which doesn't stop Norway, Iceland or Japan from catching whales?
What is Australia doing? Where are the robust representations Garrett was promising?
I hope Garrett and Australia's delegation do not dissappoint us.
So should the world give up the moratorium because of a few renegade whaling nations. Their industries are dying. They will only survive if they can wring out at least some sort of legitimizing of their hunts to allow them to build quotas, build markets and dominate further the IWC.
Yes, they still whale, but countries are being forced to now contemplate how to not just oppose within the IWC but actively champion the ending of all such whaling
Whales are being killed while the contemplation goes on. I sense people are thinking not about the whales, but more about themselves.
I do think that national interests dominate. The US support for the deal is about geo-political considerations in SE Asia as well as the issue of getting a ten year quota for its ASW hunting. Unfortunately all else seems to be secondary, including whales.
Would Japan leave the IWC over this, or was that just bluster to get a deal?
The IWC is so dysfunctional, can it now do anything to protect endangered whales?
But only dysfunctional in the sense that the whalers and their 'allies' block all moves for conservation.
Should we give up on it because the whalers strategy is to block conservation? I think our job is to show that there will always be opposition however much they want to destroy it.
We can still see many of its committees actually raise critical issues that spurns on action in national and regional agreements like the CMS agreements where real conservation is taking place thanks to the previous leadership of Rob Hepworth.
Lets not let them win by creating apathy in countries as that leads to capitulation. We fight on and on.
Ps, sorry, I meant to say no I don't think they would leave - they still think they are going to get what they want - because they play the long game, plus they do not want to become pirate whalers, - its bad enough for them that they are rogue whaling
Chris I have to say I admire the fact that you've been touring the web and commenting on major articles on the subject of whaling. There are not enough qualified voices making the case against whaling and explaining the awful history of abuses by whaling nations from the 1930s to the present day.
Most people don't understand how the latest IWC diplomatic fracas fits in to decades long patterns of subversion and generally criminal behavior of whaling nations. I hope that someday other prominent conservation organizations will contribute in this manner.
Thanks AnimuX.
Appreciate the comments
Chris