Whale meet again
ANOTHER year has gone by and the annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission is once again beset by the continuing arguments over the principle of "scientific whaling".
Since I last wrote about this a couple of years ago, the Japanese have offered to reduce the number of whales caught in the Antarctic region, but in return for more catches of Minke Whales closer to Japanese shores.
Greenland has also intensified its demands for including humpback whales in the subsistence hunt carried out by Inuit tribes.
For many countries, the Japanese position in particular represents the "thin end of the wedge", with South Korea poised to seek its own quota if Japan is successful.
Iceland has also been involved in "scientific whaling", even though there is no local demand for the meat. Much of the meat is exported to Japan.
Any extension of this thinly veiled scientific whaling is likely to draw further protests from other countries.
The pro-whaling countries are obviously keen to resume whaling on a commercial footing, but are happy to continue scientific whaling as this goes some way to satisfying demand.
Scientific whaling, they argue, is necessary to test whale populations and without it, they cannot successfully argue to overturn the moratorium.
Continuing arguments by the anti-whaling campaigners to stop scientific whaling merely serves to create demand by providing publicity.
If the anti-whaling campaigners stopped arguing their case so vociferously, demand would soon decline considerably, suggest the political experts looking at this issue.
Perhaps the current impasse suits both sides, but I hope the cynics are wrong on this one.
What is clear, though, is that majority politics doesn't always achieve a satisfactory outcome.
Many issues being dealt with on the global stage often fall foul of a handful of countries that will not take part.
Further information can be found at www.iwcoffice.org
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Friday 10 February 2012
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