Do we still want to save the whales?

Despite President Obama's promise during his candidacy to strengthen international protections for whales, the U.S. commissioner to the IWC, Monica Medina, is entertaining support for the plan that would allow a resumption in commercial whaling. This article in the Washington Post rehashes the controversy and the basic history of the Save the Whales movement that helped drive the ban on commercial whaling, and the issues surrounding the proposed plan. I wonder if the Obama administration knows what Medina is doing, given Obama's previous statements. The U.S. doesn't need to be backing down on cetacean conservation right now. It makes no sense to even consider this plan, which isn't really based on science.

We don't need to kill whales anymore. People want to see them alive. Resuming commercial whaling would just be catering to the whims of recalcitrant countries. Surely Norway, Japan, and Iceland have more pressing national issues than supporting a tiny industry that would provide (possibly mercury-laden) meat for a small number of consumers. At any rate the U.S. certainly should not be entertaining this shameful idea.