Fight Takes Shape at International Whaling Commission Meeting

The annual International Whaling Commission Meeting is underway in Anchorage, Alaska. Hardy Jones of Bluevoice reports in his blog what's at stake this crucial year.

The votes will be close. The Japanese have bought more than a dozen small nations and thus threaten to open the doors to legal whaling for the first time in twenty years. Since 1987 Japan and other nations like Iceland and Norway have only been able to conduct whaling under an article in the IWC treaty that allows for scientific whaling. Of course Japan has exploited that loophole to do pseudo-science and then sell the meat from the whales they have "researched" by harpooning and cutting them into steaks… The twenty-year moratorium on whaling, which went into effect in 1987 and was the cause of joyous celebration among those of us who love whales, is set to expire. And several nations, along with their prostitute allies, will be seeking to open the world to legal whaling.

The IWC is a perverse organization--a huge room full of men and a few women sitting down to determine the life or death of whales swimming thousands of miles away in the Antarctic or in the North Atlantic. The most odious plan Japan has brought forth is to kill humpback whales in the Antarctic. The issue will be raised Wednesday. We will follow this closely as it represents spitting in the face of tens of thousands of people around the world who not only love these whales in aggregate but know them personally, individually and marvel each year when the whales return on their migrations to Moorea, New Zealand, Australia, Tonga, Rurutu, Raritonga, New Caledonia and other areas of the Southern Ocean.

Fingers crossed, emails ready to fire… we'll be following closely. --JULIA WHITTY