Background on the IWC moratorium
In 1982 the group of countries represented by the International Whaling Commission (IWC)
voted for a pause or moratorium in commercial whaling. As explained by
the IWC website, the reason for the ban included “difficulties in
agreeing what catch limits to set for non-protected species” and
“differing attitudes to the acceptability of whaling.”
The
wording of the IWC moratorium “implied that with improved
scientific knowledge in the future, it might be possible to set catch
limits other than zero for certain stocks.”
Goals and perils of lifting the moratorium
The
White House wants to lift the ban so as to bring “the killing out
into the open,” according to a Los Angeles Times opinion piece
by Joel Reynolds of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Because
Japanese, Norwegian, and Icelandic whalers are illegally and often
surreptitiously leaping through the moratorium’s loopholes, the
Administration argues that the act of legalizing whaling would allow
them to kill in designated quotas, and could lead eventually to
“a phase-out of whaling altogether.”
“Its
intentions are good,” wrote Reynolds of Obama’s proposal,
“but the strategy is dead wrong… Legalizing whaling in
order to eliminate it makes as little sense as allowing criminal
activity in order to eliminate crime… The hope that reaching an
agreement with the whalers will, in some undefined way, appeal to their
better nature, eventually strengthen their interest in conservation and
lead them at some future point to abandon whaling is, at best, wishful
thinking.”
“…The moratorium is one of the
singular environmental achievements of the 20th century,”
Reynolds wrote. “Before it was adopted, on average an estimated
38,000 whales were being killed each year. Since the moratorium, that
number has dropped to about 1,240, and whale populations have begun,
little by little, to rebound.”
A song for whales
“One
has to have a vision and never give up to accomplish any goal in this
life,” said Bauer-van Straten on her blog. “I have a vision
that mankind can rise above allowing needless cruelty and unnecessary
slaughter to occur for any living being.”
Her husband, South African singer, songwriter, and guitarist Abri van Straten, has composed a song about whales to help fund IFAW's efforts. It can be downloaded from iTunes for $1, or from CD Baby for $2, with the extra dollar going to IFAW.
Bauer-van
Straten urges, “We can help IFAW remind Obama of his campaign
promise: ‘Allowing Japan to continue commercially whaling is
unacceptable.’”
The plan to lift the moratorium is
scheduled for consideration and action at the IWC’s annual
meeting in Agadir, Morocco in June.
Whether or not Pres. Obama will act on "Pam's" admonitions remains to be seen.
Katerina Lorenzatos Makris is the author of 17 novels for
publishers including Avon, E.P. Dutton, and Simon & Schuster, and
hundreds of articles for publications such as National Geographic
Traveler, San Francisco Chronicle, and Veggie Life. She wrote a
teleplay for CBS and short fiction for The Bark magazine. With coauthor
Shelley Frost, she wrote Your Adopted Dog
(The Lyons Press). Holding a B.A. in Environmental Science Studies and
a lifelong interest in animal issues, she spends a lot of her time
battling a severe addiction to dogs.
|
