David @ Tokyo

Dear Sir,

Congratulations on a very one-sided article in relation to the whaling issue!

While Nan Hauser may have a personal agenda of whale protection (as opposed to whale conservation), credible scientists from various parts of the world have repeatedly stated that the IWC is now capable of setting safe, conservative, sustainable commercial whaling catch limits.

Judy Zeh is but one example. Zeh is a member of the IWC's Scientific Committee, and served as it's Chair for a period of time. A few years ago she told Australia's ABC that "it's certainly true that if commercial whaling were resumed under the revised management procedure, it could be managed safely". [1]

Also refered to as "factual" in your article is a very dubious study by a well-known anti-whaling researcher, which argued that pre-whaling whale populations were much higher than conventionally believed. This paper was presented to the IWC Scientific Committee for review, the result of which was that the Committee agreed that the proposed estimates had "considerably more uncertainty than reported, and can not be considered reliable estimates of immediate pre-whaling population size." [2]

The western public deserves to be better informed on matters surrounding whaling.

Best regards,
David

[1] http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/stories/s147657.htm
[2] http://www.iwcoffice.org/publications/editorialnew.htm

posted by David  # 11:31 pm