Posts Tagged ‘IWC’
Day Two of IWC 2016
This is meant as a brief update on progress and hurdles this morning at IWC66 in Slovenia. We shall update when we get another gap between sessions. IWC66/09 South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary The day started badly for the whales when the Schedule Amendment that would have established the South Atlantic Sanctuary (#SAWS) was defeated with…
Read MoreDenmark: Wanting their whale and eating it
So Denmark has submitted its opening statement to the IWC and I guess the question is, have they learned their lesson since the last meeting? One reading of the statement would suggest that Denmark wants to ‘have their cake’, and, as the old saying goes, quite literally, ‘eat it’. I asked in a previous post…
Read MoreIWC Heroes and Villains
Since the early 1990s accusations have been levelled against the Government of Japan that it was linking its overseas development aid (ODA) to the recruitment of other nation states to support its campaign for a resumption of commercial whaling. Watching the voting patterns of the various Parties, a neutral observer new to the International Whaling…
Read MoreA Kingdom divided
It seems that whilst Denmark has been doing its utmost within the EU to pander to its overseas territories in Greenland and the Faroe Islands, the Danish citizens of these two distant lands are not so grateful. The Arctic Journal (20th October 2016) reports that Greenland and the Faroes are demanding that Denmark, their representative…
Read MoreIllegal sale of Japanese whale meat exposed by WDC on eve of international whaling meeting
UPDATE! (Weds 19.10.2016) WDC today discovered that whale meat was recently available on eBay US, where a can of Kinoya Canned Rare Sunoko Whale Meat was on offer for $45 including shipping. The listing was ended by the seller on 06 October 2016 as “the item is no longer available”. It is currently unclear what…
Read MoreWhen is a whaling ban not a whaling ban?
The International Whaling Commission (IWC) biennial meeting is never a simple place to negotiate your way through. I had the privilege of attending several meetings during my WDC career, and the team we are sending this year will be some of our best brains. And this year we need the team to be on top…
Read MoreHow to ensure whaling becomes a family tradition
So what lies at the roots of whaling policy in Japan and Iceland? Is it some sense of national identity? Is it some true altruistic desire to feed their countrymen? Or is it something else? For many observers, the continued certainty of Iceland’s last few whalers’ desire to keep a dying whaling industry alive is,…
Read MoreThe IWC Scientific Committee meeting: Science and politics
Tuesday saw the start of the International Whaling Commission’s (IWC) 2016 Scientific Committee meeting, hosted in Bled, Slovenia. WDC experts have been part of the meeting for more than 20 years and will present a number of papers as well as take part in the various workshops and sub committees. One of the most contentious…
Read MoreAs Japan launches its new whaling programme, is the fleet sailing into new legal jeopardy?
Seemingly driven by spurious nationalistic pride and despite their failure to gain the support of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and, in contempt of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Japan’s Antarctic whaling fleet is leaving its homeport today, December 1st. But the fleet may not simply be sailing into the choppy waters of the…
Read MoreJapan formally announces new scientific whaling programme in the Antarctic
Depsite failing to get approval from the International Whaling Commission (IWC), and with its whaling being condemned by the International Court of Justice, Japan has formally announced today, 27th November, that it will recommence ist unliateral ‘scientifc’ whaling in the Antarctic this austral summer. The BBC is reporting that Japan will start whaling on the…
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