sbs
18-06-2003, 11:29
Some of you will know that Whaling is one of my soap box subjects so I've been watching this story develop with interest - in a nutshell it wants the IWC to shift it's focus to protecting whales rather than managing the whaling "industry"
Sunday:
Hunted to the brink of extinction, their relentless slaughter became the first great symbol of the overexploitation of the earth's resources. Now, for the first time since commercial whaling was banned almost two decades ago, the recovery of the species is threatened by a return to the bloodbath of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Talks this week could map out the fate of the world's largest mammal as the credibility of the international agreement that controls whaling faces its sternest test.
A coalition of pro-whaling nations led by Japan is set to hijack the talks at the International Whaling Commission amid allegations that votes have been bought by bribery.
Japan and its growing block of supporters - once a tiny minority - could win a clear majority for the first time in the commission's 57-year history.
Delegates from about 40 countries will vote tomorrow on whether to introduce the most important whaling conservation measure for years. The so-called Berlin Initiative would transform the commission into a body dedicated to safeguarding the whale rather than regulating the whaling industry for which it was originally created.
Yet already it is doomed. Japan looks likely to muster 50 per cent of the vote needed to block the proposal.
Full story here:http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,977768,00.html
Tuesday
A deeply divided International Whaling Commission (IWC) voted in Berlin yesterday to increase efforts to protect whales, a step greeted as a historic shift by conservation groups but denounced by Japan and its pro-whaling allies.
The 25-20 vote on a resolution that called for "strengthening the conservation agenda" of the IWC drew only faint applause after a day of often bitter debate at the annual meeting of the group, which has become increasingly polarised since it imposed a global ban on commercial whaling in 1986.
"Whales around the world are safer today thanks to this landmark decision," said Fred O'Regan, president of the International Fund for Animal Welfare. "It marks a move from centuries of exploitation to a new century of wildlife conservation."
The vote set up a committee within the 50-nation IWC that will have the task of working with wildlife groups and bolstering efforts to protect cetaceans, or fishlike marine mammals. It is expected to start work next year.
Full story here:http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,979248,00.html
Today
Furious Japanese delegates symbolically walked out of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in Berlin yesterday after Mexico, joined by Britain and 23 other countries, narrowly forced the commission to extend its role from global whale management to conservation.
"This is the final blow to the already polarised IWC, destroying its raison d'être," said Minoru Morimoto, Japan's whaling commissioner, who threatened to take Japan out of the commission, which has managed whale stocks since 1946.
The WWF, one of the leading campaigners for whales, said: "This is the start of a modern IWC with conservation at its heart. It is not the end of whaling but it is very good news for conservation. We hope that Japan and other countries who voted against the proposal will now calm down and work with the commission."
The whaling countries rejected two proposals for whale sanctuaries.
Related stories here:http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,979551,00.html
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Time for those Countries that still hunt whales to admit there is absolutely no reason to hunt whales at all, especially for so called "scientific reasons" I loathe whaling..........opinions please and don't even get me started on Bull Fighting!
Sunday:
Hunted to the brink of extinction, their relentless slaughter became the first great symbol of the overexploitation of the earth's resources. Now, for the first time since commercial whaling was banned almost two decades ago, the recovery of the species is threatened by a return to the bloodbath of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Talks this week could map out the fate of the world's largest mammal as the credibility of the international agreement that controls whaling faces its sternest test.
A coalition of pro-whaling nations led by Japan is set to hijack the talks at the International Whaling Commission amid allegations that votes have been bought by bribery.
Japan and its growing block of supporters - once a tiny minority - could win a clear majority for the first time in the commission's 57-year history.
Delegates from about 40 countries will vote tomorrow on whether to introduce the most important whaling conservation measure for years. The so-called Berlin Initiative would transform the commission into a body dedicated to safeguarding the whale rather than regulating the whaling industry for which it was originally created.
Yet already it is doomed. Japan looks likely to muster 50 per cent of the vote needed to block the proposal.
Full story here:http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,977768,00.html
Tuesday
A deeply divided International Whaling Commission (IWC) voted in Berlin yesterday to increase efforts to protect whales, a step greeted as a historic shift by conservation groups but denounced by Japan and its pro-whaling allies.
The 25-20 vote on a resolution that called for "strengthening the conservation agenda" of the IWC drew only faint applause after a day of often bitter debate at the annual meeting of the group, which has become increasingly polarised since it imposed a global ban on commercial whaling in 1986.
"Whales around the world are safer today thanks to this landmark decision," said Fred O'Regan, president of the International Fund for Animal Welfare. "It marks a move from centuries of exploitation to a new century of wildlife conservation."
The vote set up a committee within the 50-nation IWC that will have the task of working with wildlife groups and bolstering efforts to protect cetaceans, or fishlike marine mammals. It is expected to start work next year.
Full story here:http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,979248,00.html
Today
Furious Japanese delegates symbolically walked out of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in Berlin yesterday after Mexico, joined by Britain and 23 other countries, narrowly forced the commission to extend its role from global whale management to conservation.
"This is the final blow to the already polarised IWC, destroying its raison d'être," said Minoru Morimoto, Japan's whaling commissioner, who threatened to take Japan out of the commission, which has managed whale stocks since 1946.
The WWF, one of the leading campaigners for whales, said: "This is the start of a modern IWC with conservation at its heart. It is not the end of whaling but it is very good news for conservation. We hope that Japan and other countries who voted against the proposal will now calm down and work with the commission."
The whaling countries rejected two proposals for whale sanctuaries.
Related stories here:http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,979551,00.html
**********************************************
Time for those Countries that still hunt whales to admit there is absolutely no reason to hunt whales at all, especially for so called "scientific reasons" I loathe whaling..........opinions please and don't even get me started on Bull Fighting!