IFAW: Plan to overturn whaling ban revealed

(London – 23 April 2010) – The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) has condemned a newly released plan by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to legalise commercial whaling.

The proposal, if adopted, would overturn the 1986 ban on commercial whaling by authorising whaling by Norway, Iceland and Japan. It would also legalise Japan’s whaling in an internationally recognised whale sanctuary around Antarctica, grant new rights to Japan, Iceland and Norway to kill whales for commercial purposes and ignore established IWC scientific procedures for estimating sustainable whaling limits.

The plan, released by the IWC Secretariat based in Cambridge, UK, is to be considered and acted on in June at the IWC’s annual meeting in Agadir, Morocco.

“This plan is a whaler’s wish list,” said Patrick Ramage, IFAW’s Whale Programme Director. “It throws a lifeline to a dying industry when endangered whale populations face more threats than ever before. This would be a breathtaking reversal of decades of conservation progress at the IWC.”

The IWC, comprised of 88-member governments, is the global body responsible for conservation of our planet’s great whales. Three member countries – Japan, Norway and Iceland – have continued to hunt whales in defiance of the worldwide commercial whaling ban. The plan proposes annual whale hunting quotas for these countries under the discretion of the IWC.

The current proposal would also:

. Overturn the global ban on commercial whaling and allow hunting in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary around Antarctica.
. Approve the killing of whales for commercial purposes by Japan around Antarctica and in the North Pacific.
. Add new rights for Japan to hunt whales in its coastal waters.
. Allow continued whaling by Iceland and Norway in violation of long-agreed scientific procedures and the global whaling ban.

German and US government officials, together with fisheries representatives from 11 other countries, have conducted three years of closed-door meetings and produced a proposed agreement that would not only suspend the ban on commercial whaling but grant Norway, Iceland and Japan the right to hunt whales legally and open the world’s largest whale sanctuary, in the Antarctic, to whaling.

Robbie Marsland, UK Director of IFAW, said: “Whaling is unequivocally banned in EU waters. It would be hypocritical in the extreme not to condemn a deal which sanctions whaling elsewhere. Instead of twisting arms to get a deal that conserves whaling, the EU should be promoting 21st Century conservation measures and working to end commercial whaling once and for all.”

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For more information contact Clare Sterling at IFAW on 020 7587 6708, mobile 07917 507717 or email csterling@ifaw.org

About IFAW –

With offices in 15 countries, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) saves animals in crisis around the world. We rescue and provide veterinary care to individual animals and advocate for the protection of entire populations. Visit our website www.ifaw.org