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David @ Tokyo

Perspective from Japan on whaling and whale meat, a spot of gourmet news, and monthly updates of whale meat stockpile statistics

6/15/2006

 

IWC 2006: Poor Ian Campbell in a pickle

The Australian Senate has apparently:
"unanimously passed a motion by Senator Rachel Siewert calling on the Government to "urgently consider legal proceedings against this 'unlawful' whaling"
Oh dear! This leaves Ian Campbell with quite a dilemma:
Politically, the latter is much higher risk.

I imagine that Campbell will stick to his legal advice, and attempt to explain it to the public. After all, Australians are almost completely unaffected by Japan's whaling activities. Humpback whales will continue to migrate up and down the coasts, in increasing numbers, despite hunting. The public will quickly forget the lack of legal action - and at the end of the day, Japan will always be portrayed as enemy #1.

Ride it out Ian. Ride it out :-)

[UPDATE]

[I]nternational law specialist Associate Professor Steven Freeland, from the University of Western Sydney, said the whale population could be facing an environmental catastrophe if the prevailing stalemate between anti-whaling and pro-whaling nations continues.

"The stalemate within the IWC must end, otherwise those countries wishing to harvest whales on a commercial basis might eventually chose to do so under less restrictive, or even no controls," he said.

"Japan has threatened on a number of occasions to withdraw from the IWC altogether and operate outside of the moratorium."

Dead right :-) Those in favour of proper whale conservation (not just irrational blanket protection) must recognise this.

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