Written by Ronald Ho, Four Green Steps

Last week, a motion proposed by anti-whaling nations to take whale conservation to the UN General Assembly failed at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) after fierce opposition and criticism from hunting nations.

Since the whaling moratorium being placed in 1986, only indigenous people could hunt whales for subsistence, while nations could only hunt whales in the name of scientific research. There is a quota for each country on the number of whales that they could capture. The heated debates in this year’s meeting South Korea's announcement that it was preparing to allow some of its fishermen to hunt whales under regulations permitting a catch for scientific research and Monaco’s proposal to call on the UN General Assembly to debate whale conversation with the purpose of extending protection to all cetaceans. At the end of the meeting Monaco’s suggestion was rejected due to the lack of consensus as whaling nations threatened to withdraw from IWC and South Korea’s announcement drew enormous criticisms from other nations and environmental groups.

The good news is as more and more nations are joining the IWC, there are now more anti-whaling nations than pro-whaling nations. Overall, many observers said this had been the most functional IWC meeting for years, with votes taken in an orderly fashion and a relative absence of grandstanding.

To learn more about the Commission, visit: IWCOffice.org

Image courtesy of Creative Commons.

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