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Whaling war continues as ban is maintained

A report from the International Whaling Commission meeting, Agadir, Morocco, Friday June 25th 2010

The 62nd annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission has just ended and it has proven the usual mix of highs and lows for the Campaign Whale team here in Morocco trying so hard to protect these wonderful animals.

A brief summary of the meeting is set out below:

• The IWC’s 24 year long ban on commercial whaling remains firmly in place.
• A compromise deal that would have legitimised commercial whaling by Iceland, Norway and Japan for up to ten years was defeated.
• Greenland was awarded a controversial additional subsistence whaling quota of 9 humpback whales after agreeing to reduce its overall quota by 22 minke and 9 fin whales each year over the next three years.
• The IWC’s Conservation and Scientific Committees is conducting vital work on identifying and addressing global threats to whales and dolphins from climate change, toxic pollution, over-fishing, entanglement in fishing gear, ship-strikes, oil and gas extraction and seismic testing, habitat loss and noise pollution, including military sonar. Addressing such threats is vital when an estimated 300,000 whales are killed in fishing nets alone each year.
• Recovery plans are being developed for critically endangered whale populations and species.
• The IWC called for a postponement of seismic testing in the feeding grounds of the critically endangered Western North-Pacific Grey Whales.
• The IWC agreed an intercessional workshop to review whale killing methods. 
• Many countries called for the IWC and the World Health Organisation to cooperate over the health threats to people eating whale and dolphin products that are increasingly contaminated with mercury and other toxins.
• Whale-watching was highlighted as a viable and sustainable alternative to whaling for coastal states.
• The unregulated hunting of dolphins by African coastal states was highlighted as an issue of serious concern by the Scientific Committee.
• The slaughter of tens of thousands of dolphins and porpoises in Japan alone each year is coming under increasing scrutiny and mounting political pressure.

Although Japan, Iceland and Norway will continue to kill whales in defiance of the IWC, a compromise deal that would have legitimised this whaling, shamefully backed by leading conservation groups Greenpeace, World Wildlife Fund and the Pew Environment Group, was defeated, at least for now. We hope these organisations will reconsider their position and back the whales, not whaling in future.

Detailed daily reports from this year’s IWC meeting are available here.

Campaign Whale would like to thank the continuing generosity of all our supporters that made it possible for us to be here in Morocco and achieve so much, and in so many ways, for the whales and dolphins.

Thank you so much!