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| Minke whales remain targets. |
With whales threatened by increasing harm from ship strikes, pollution, underwater noise, and climate change, whaling nations promised no reductions in their take at this year’s International Whaling Commission meeting, which ended Friday in Chile.
No End to the Killing
The biggest whale slaughter in the world will continue, as Japan kills nearly 17,000 Dall’s porpoises. Japan did not even respond to the plea from the United States and other nations at IWC to reduce its killing of the Dall’s to sustainable levels.
Japan’s “scientific” whaling programs, JARPA and JARPN II—barely disguised commercial whaling programs embattled by scandals over crew members’ embezzlement of whale meat and meaningless academic observations by scientists—will also continue. JARPA kills about 1,000 whales per year in the Southern Ocean and JARPN II kills approximately 200 more.
Delegates from Iceland and Norway, the other nations that refuse to abide by the commercial moratorium on whaling approved in 1986, were also unapologetic, refusing to discuss their nations’ recent sale of whale meat to Japan in violation of IWC and CITES regulations.
“This year, many of the contracting nations came to IWC in a spirit of cooperation, hoping to get beyond the impasse over whaling,” says Patricia Forkan, president of Humane Society International. “In light of the threats to whales developing on other fronts, a better way forward must become an urgent priority for the community of nations.”
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| OAR/NURP, UNC-Wilmington |
| Greenland wants to take 10 humpback whales. |
Species in Danger
Among the setbacks discussed last week, meeting attendees heard the bleak news concerning the vaquita, which the IWC Scientific Committee said will be extinct in five years due to illegal gillnet fishing in the Sea of Cortez, and Mexico’s failure to act promptly to eliminate the fishing gear that is drowning the animals.
A new report on climate change suggested dire consequences for the world’s whales if immediate steps aren’t taken to mitigate the effects of changes in sea temperature, freshening of seawater from melting ice and increased rainfall, sea level rise, loss of polar habitats, and the decline of krill populations. Meanwhile, the IWC’s Scientific Committee continued its important work on assessments of threats to whales from ship strikes, fisheries entanglements, and underwater noise generated by human technology, including energy company exploration, as well as from emerging and recurring diseases.
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You Can Help |
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Read about the many ways you can take action to help save whales. |
HSI Will Continue the Fight
HSI staff, on site for the IWC meeting, were already making plans for how to protect whales and other marine mammals in the coming year.
“Commercial whaling is the easiest threat to remove, because we could end it immediately,” says Dr. Naomi Rose, senior scientist for HSI. “There’s all the more reason to do so because we have to start focusing our collective energies on these other threats.”
HSI was disappointed in the showing by the U.S. delegation to the meeting, which seemed deficient by comparison to those of Australia, England, New Zealand and other pro-whale nations.
“In the leadup to the 2009 IWC meeting in Madeira, Portugal,” says Bernard Unti, senior policy advisor for The Humane Society of the United States, “we will have to do lots of intersessional work lobbying to fortify the U.S. position of support for the commercial whaling moratorium and to make sure the recent drive to improve practices and comity within the IWC don't result in worse losses for whales."
Successes So Far
For 35 years, Humane Society International and its parent organization, The Humane Society of the United States, have stood at the forefront of the movement to protect whales. From the 1970s, when Japan, the Soviet Union, and others killed tens of thousands of whales annually, to the 1986 historic moratorium on commercial whaling, we have challenged the whaling industry, and been a voice for whales.
- Scientific research: Check out our latest report showing who is really causing a decline in global fisheries. (Hint: it’s not whales.) Executive Summary/Full Report [PDF]
- Public policy: With your help, we led the successful campaign for passage of a U.S. House Resolution, mandating the U.S. delegation at International Whaling Commission meeting to do its best to preserve the moratorium on commercial whaling.
- In the courts: In January, we won a major lawsuit when the Australian Federal Court ruled that a Japanese whaling company was in breach of Australian law by killing whales in Australian waters that are designated as a whale sanctuary.
- In the marketplace: We have successfully persuaded companies to stop selling whale meat, and have encouraged others to divest of their involvement with Japanese whaling interests.
- At the International Whaling Commission: Our HSI delegation worked hard at last week’s IWC meeting in Santiago, collaborating with national delegates, lobbying them to hold the line against any efforts to expand whaling.
