WP: U.S. Joins Anti-Whaling Effort: Nations Respond to Panel's Vote

[DeepModem Mom]

U.S. Joins Anti-Whaling Effort
Nations Respond To Panel's Vote
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 26, 2006; Page A03

The United States and some of its closest allies are launching a concerted campaign to block a possible return to large-scale whaling and to reverse the gains made by pro-whaling forces in the international commission that regulates hunting of the massive creatures.

The political shift in the International Whaling Commission, which was on full display last week when the body narrowly backed a nonbinding resolution in favor of commercial whaling, has alarmed environmentalists and senior officials in the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Britain. In interviews last week, several said they feel a duty to mount an organized effort to ensure that the 20-year-old whaling moratorium remains intact.

"This is now a period in human history where the whaling issue will be decided once and for all," said Ian Campbell, Australia's minister for the environment and heritage, in an interview Thursday. "Whaling will be stopped, if I have my way, with the only exception being for aboriginal subsistence whaling."

The commission has sharply limited whaling since 1986, making exceptions only for aboriginal whaling and scientific whaling by a handful of countries including Japan and Iceland. Norway ignores the moratorium. These three countries say the moratorium has allowed many species to rebound sufficiently to sustain a commercial fishery and have announced they plan to increase their total current catch of 2,395 whales a year to 3,215 by 2008.

Some whale populations, such as minkes, have indeed rebounded in recent years, but others continue to struggle after being devastated by decades of industrial-scale whaling....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/25/AR2006062500737.html

[depakid]

1. Break out the Navies....

It's going to end up having to be that way with lots of other fisheries too- might as well set the precedent where the reasonable parties agree....

[Coventina]

5. Seconded. The whalers have declared war on the environment.

The civilized world should declare war on the whalers.

[samsingh]

2. save the whales!

[xchrom]

3. no whaling!

[The Stranger]

4. The U.S. is actually on the right side of something?

Holy shit. Color me incredulous.

[wickerwoman]

6. I'm sure the real motivation is something like

discouraging the next generation in whale-eating countries from developing a taste for it and then selling them lots and lots of U.S. beef.

I'll take what I can get though.