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THOUGHTS ON THE LATEST IWC MEETING

Although I welcome the impasse at the latest IWC meeting, I see this merely as a delay and not a victory. For the intention by some nations to end the Moratorium has not changed and therefore vigilance must be kept and the battle must continue.

This topic requires a more in-depth discussion, which I will post shortly. (Noel, July 2010)

IWC IN THE NEWS

AGADIR, Morocco, June 23, 2010 (ENS) - A controversial plan that would have meant the end of a 24-year long moratorium on commercial whaling was today put on ice for a year by the International Whaling Commi-ssion at its annual meeting.

The 88 IWC member governments meeting in Agadir failed to agree on the proposed compromise between whale conservation nations and whaling nations that would have legalized whaling in return for bringing the hunt under IWC control.

Currently, three whaling nations - Japan, Norway and Iceland - set their own quotas without regard for the moratorium observed by all other countries.

Japan conducts “research” whaling in Antarctica’s Southern Ocean and North Pacific under a provision of the IWC treaty, while Norway and Iceland have taken objections to the IWC moratorium. The three countries have killed more than 33,000 whales since the the moratorium took effect in 1986.

(This full article appears on the Environmental News Service website at -
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jun2010/2010-06-23-01.html)