I’ve just watched the IWC buckle under pressure from Denmark and narrowly approve a proposal for Greenland to hunt nine humpback whales a year for the next three years, supposedly for subsistence use.
Despite strong statements of opposition from many governments, acting IWC Chair Anthony Liverpool asked those in opposition not to block this proposal. The 25-strong EU block pledged their support, whilst Australia and numerous Latin American members opposed the highly controversial request.
During the plenary, Australia’s Commissioner Donna Petrachenko stated that any request for Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling must be sustainable and based on genuine needs. And it must meet the criteria for Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling.
But WSPA’s 2008 investigation ‘Exploding Myths’ showed that around a quarter of Greenland’s whaling is commercial in nature and it seems that commercial markets are only increasing.
So yet again we see the IWC trading the lives of sentient beings as if they were merely stock. Greenland last caught humpback whales in 1986 and has provided no convincing evidence of a subsistence need to start catching them again.
These gentle and charismatic humpbacks will suffer immensely when killed - all to end up on supermarket shelves or to satisfy the appetites and curiosities of tourists in luxury restaurants.
Inflicting such immense cruelty in the name of profit is simply unacceptable.
This is a sad day. The IWC is purely about politics, not whales.
Emily Reeves, WSPA
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1 comment:
I am lecturar and extreamly serious to stop whales killings in the world for fun. I am with you, just let me know what can I do to stop it? Kind Regards,
Furqan Ahmed
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