David @ Tokyo

As readers will have seen elsewhere, 25 out of the IWC's 71 nations (from Europe, South America, and the USA, Australia, New Zealand and the UK) joined a diplomatic protest against Iceland's resumption of commercial whaling.

In their protest, the 25 nations said that they

"believe that commercial whaling quotas determined and prosecuted in the absence of any agreed management system undermines the proper functioning of the IWC."

This of course is ridiculous coming from these 25 nations, who are the reason that a management system for whaling has not been agreed. Many of these nations openly admit that they won't agree to any system that permits any commercial whaling.

Iceland's representatives have responded, telling Forbes magazine:

"They should take a leaf out of our book on sustaibability, since we are very diligent in our fisheries. Most of the 25 countries on that list, which are in the EU, have a rather wretched record of sustainability in fisheries."

Of course, some of the 25 nations do not even have a coastline to start with and wouldn't know the first thing about sustainable marine resource utilization.

The High North Alliance (HNA) also reports that the Fin whale hunt has been called off for the rest of the year due to weather conditions, with most of the quota already taken, amounting to

"about 100 tonnes of excellent eco-friendly whale meat and blubber ready for the market"

In the same release, the HNA also illustrates the farcical situation with Americans killing more than 60 Bowhead whales annually (abundance estimated to be around 10,000) yet not being criticised as has been Iceland for killing just 9 Fin whales in the year to August 2007 (abundance estimated to be around 26,000).

The USA will be wondering how it can both secure a continued Bowhead quota for it's people at next year's IWC meeting, while at the same criticising Iceland for undertaking lower impact whaling activity.

Labels: double-standards, fin whales, Iceland, Whaling

According to The Australian, Ian Campbell is reported to have said that

"without anything else going wrong, fin whales were close to extinction."

This is inspite of IWC Scientific Committee apparently having endorsed the estimate being reported by Iceland of 25,800 fin whales in Iceland's waters, and the IWC Scientific Committee recognising 10% growth in the stock between 1987 and 2001 (as I noted previously). It's hard to see a species going extinct when in that part of the world it is growing that strongly over such a sustained period of time.

What does Ian Campbell think is going to push these whales to extinction? Has he got any maths to explain his ideas?

In the same article, Campbell is also reported to have said:

"They [Iceland] can't be taken seriously on any environmental issue in the future"

Given his own statements, such talk is extremely ironic.

Labels: fin whales, Ian Campbell, Iceland, Whaling