EIA and conservation partners unite to seek the end of commercial whaling
To mark this year’s 40th anniversary of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) moratorium on commercial whaling, EIA and a coalition of conservation and animal welfare organisations have joined forces to launch a global petition to end commercial whaling.
Despite the global ban, the governments of three countries – Iceland, Japan and Norway – have sanctioned the killing of more than 45,000 whales since 1986.
Their actions, with the support of a small group of IWC member countries, have consistently undermined the IWC’s efforts to protect whales and address the many threats they still face.
A whale captured by Japanese vessel the Yushin Maru (c) Customs and Border Protection Service, Commonwealth of Australia
In its heyday, commercial whaling caused catastrophic population declines, especially for large species such as fin, sperm and blue whales. Many were hunted to near extinction and are still struggling to recover today.
Launched on World Whale Day (15 February), the End Commercial Whaling Coalition – www.endcommercialwhaling.org – is calling on all governments which support or permit commercial whaling to uphold the IWC’s moratorium and put an end to the commercial hunting of whales once and for all.
EIA Senior Ocean Advisor Clare Perry said: “Overfishing, pollution, biodiversity loss and the accelerating impacts of the climate crisis are pushing marine ecosystems to their limits.
“But whales play a vital role in maintaining healthy oceans, distributing nutrients, supporting phytoplankton growth and stabilising food webs. They also help regulate the climate by enhancing the ocean’s capacity to store carbon.
“It is ludicrous that in this day and age, when other IWC members ended commercial whaling 40 years ago in response to the moratorium decision and when so many people want to see it brought to a complete end, that just three countries remain outliers to the consensus that the world is significantly better off with whales in the world’s oceans instead of in pet food and in supermarkets.”
“There is no economic necessity for Iceland, Japan or Norway to hunt whales, only a refusal to evolve. At a time when the world is desperate for environmental leadership, it is indefensible for three of the world’s richest countries to bypass the IWC’s global moratorium on commercial whaling.
“We are calling on them to trade their harpoons for the cooperation the world so urgently needs.”
* The founding members of the End Commercial Whaling Coalition are the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC), ProWildlife, Instituto de Conservacion de Ballenas, Endangered Species Protection Agency (ESPA), Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), Centro de Conservación Cetacea (CCC Chilé), CETLaw, Fundación Cethus, the Whaleman Foundation and World Federation for Animals.
