London, 23rd April 2010: The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) strongly condemns a proposal published late yesterday by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) which would effectively lift the ban on commercial whaling and give a green light to the industrial slaughter of almost 1,400 whales next year. The deadly proposal, published by the Chair and Vice-Chair of IWC, is to be voted on at the annual meeting of the IWC in June, in Morocco.
WSPA’s Marine Mammal Programme Manager, Claire Bass said, “In a perverse attempt to save some whales, the IWC is considering signing a death warrant for almost 13,000 whales over the next 10 years. This misguided proposal would resuscitate the world’s dying whaling industries and would be a huge step backwards for animal welfare and conservation globally.’
The proposal suggests that Norway and Iceland be allowed to slaughter up to 760 minke and fin whales each year in the north Atlantic. Contrary to claims by proponents, it would realise no significant overall reduction in the number of whales killed, at the cost of legitimising an inherently and unacceptably cruel industry.
The proposal, forcefully championed by the United States, has emerged at the end of a two-year-long series of negotiations to decide a future for the IWC, aimed at resolving conflict between anti- and pro-whaling nations. If adopted in June, it would lift the 24-year international moratorium on commercial whaling and legitimise whaling by Japan, Norway and Iceland for a 10-year period.
The proposal is littered with inconsistencies – purporting to keep the moratorium in place but awarding commercial whaling quotas; creating a new whale sanctuary in the South Atlantic but allowing more than 3,000 minke and fin whales to be slaughtered in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary.
Claire continued, “The real challenge now is to see whether 88 governments will really come together in June and cast approving votes for an industry that uses exploding harpoons to blast holes in fully conscious animals? This is 2010, not 1910 - commercial whaling is cruel, archaic and unnecessary and has no place in the 21st century.”
She concluded, “Perhaps the most extraordinary thing about this proposal is that it recommends that the costs of monitoring and managing commercial whaling should be met by all IWC members. It’s hard to imagine taxpayers in countries like the UK, Australia and New Zealand being happy to find that they’re subsidising commercial whaling.”
WSPA will be working hard to lobby governments before June to derail this dangerous deal, and instead encourage a healthy focus on the IWC’s future as a body to manage whale conservation and whale watching.
The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) is the world’s largest alliance of animal welfare organisations, currently representing more than 1000 member societies in over 156 countries. WSPA strives to create a world where animal welfare matters and animal cruelty ends. We bring about change at both grassroots and governmental levels, to benefit animals.
Notes to editors
* The full proposal ‘Proposed consensus decision to improve the conservation status of whales from the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Commission’ is publicly available on the website of the IWC at http://www.iwcoffice.org/_documents/commission/IWC62docs/62-7.pdf
* A press release from the Chair and Vice-Chair is also available at http://www.iwcoffice.org/_documents/commission/IWC62docs/press%20release...
* If adopted in June, the proposal would sanction commercial whale hunts starting on November 1st 2010, in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary,
* Over the last ten years, between 2000 and 2009, Japan, Norway and Iceland have collectively killed some 13,930 whales, in defiance of the whaling ban.
* Whales are killed using exploding harpoons which detonate inside the animal’s body causing massive internal injuries and blood loss. In Japanese hunts some 60% of whales survive the initial harpoon explosion, some taking over an hour to die. Norway claims that 80% of whales die instantaneously but has not collected data to corroborate this since 2003.
* This week (21st April) Norwegian animal welfare organisations and WSPA campaign partners Dyrebeskyttelsen Norge and NOAH – for dyrs rettigheter presented a petition to the Norwegian Parliament signed by over 4,000 Norwegians opposed to their government’s whaling policy. Photos of the handover, including a life-size inflatable whale outside the Parliament in Oslo, are available on request.
* WSPA is part of Whalewatch, a global network of 50 non-governmental organisations united by a common opposition to whaling on welfare grounds.
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