The ban stays! Pro-whaling advocates loose their fight to legalize commercial whaling

Pro-whaling supporters were dealt a bitter blow today when it was revealed that the International Whaling Commission (IWC) have failed to reach consensus in Morocco on a deal to legitimize commercial whaling, thus signaling a significant victory for organizations like the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS), who have campaigned long and hard to keep the 24 year ban in place. Pro-whaling advocates decided that it was too risky to push their proposal to a vote and suffer the humiliation of it being publicly rejected, after it became increasingly clear that the majority of nations were not convinced by the arguments that any whales being killed under the guise of commercial whaling was acceptable. “We have won the battle to keep the ban in place but must continue to fight to win the war on all whaling”, says WDCS CEO, Chris Butler-Stroud. “Yes, the moratorium (ban) still stands but we must not forget that Japan, Iceland and Norway continue to whale outside of the sanction of the IWC, and that is a situation that has to change. Their whaling activities must come to an end once and for all.” Nations at the conference in Morocco 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. The Latin American countries and Australia were clear on their opposition to the proposed deal and, after weeks of uncertainty, even the EU took a strong position and rejected the proposed version while continuing to still be willing to negotiate. WDCS anticipates there will be further discussions in the coming year, but we now call on the nations of the world to realize that the old world view of whaling is over. “We now call on governments to work together to ensure the moratorium is implemented fully and effectively ending commercial, and so-called scientific whaling, which have no place in the 21st century. WDCS believes that the IWC has a strong future, but not one that legitimizes this cruel, unmanageable and unnecessary industry,” says Nicolas Entrup, spokesperson of WDCS in Agadir. The 62nd meeting of the IWC whilst not taking forward the ‘deal’ will now look at a number of important agenda items.One important item still to be debated is the demand by Demark that Greenland should be allowed to expand its hunt to include 10 humpback whales per year. Full briefings on the Greenland issue available from WDCS.