David @ Tokyo

The timetable for IWC 57 can be found here.

All the so called "environmental groups" surely must scratch their heads when they see the schedule each year.

Note that:
1) The schedule for the Scientific Committee meeting is from 30 May to 10 June (11 days). This is the meeting where, amongst other things, research whaling proposals will be discussed and so on.

2) The schedule for the 57th Annual Meeting runs from 20 June to 24 June (5 days). This is the politicians' meeting, where you'll hear the NZ government representatives and others spouting off heaps of nonsense - probably in even more extravagent amounts since this is an election year.

The head scratcher?
Consider the amount of politics involved in the whaling issue. Whaling is one of the most political international issues there is. The politicians have 5 days to get everything off their chests.

Now consider that the scientific committee meeting is twice as long as the politician's meeting in duration.

The "environmental groups" and anti-whaling governments would have the punters all believe that there is no science going on in the whaling world - it's all just "commercial whaling in disguise, exploiting loopholes".

Two words to all the doubters out there in Internet-land:

Wakey wakey!!