IWC Reflections

On the whole ASOC was pleased that the proposal to legalize limited whaling failed at this year’s annual meeting for the International Whaling Commission, in Agadir, Morocco. The proposal was meant to act as a compromise between the whaling and non-whaling communities. As we've mentioned in earlier posts, this plan was more diplomatic than scientific and thus flawed. Yes its failure is by all accounts a success, but it is not the solution.

The commission said that 4,000 and 18,000 whales could be saved under the compromised proposal which sets lower catch limits for the still-whaling nations than the self-imposed quotas which they have now. Under the proposal there would be monitoring of whaling and no other countries in the commission, but Japan, Norway and Iceland, would be allowed to start during the 10 year plan.

The failure of this plan was not positive or negative. That is, as stated in a press release put out by the IWC , the commission “agreed to a pause in its work on this topic to allow time for reflection until the 2011 meeting.” Considering that governments, including the United States, were willing to relax protections for whales in return for other concessions from Japan, Norway and Iceland, this “time for reflection” is an opportunity to reinforce that the US and others need to shift away from the recent trend of negotiating the terms under which whaling can continue, and recommit themselves to bringing whaling to a final halt.