'Sustainable' international commercial whaling is an oxymoron.



(image courtesy of Wikipedia)


There is no way of creating a 'sustainable' international commercial whaling market in international waters. The IWC quota system called the RMP and the supervision system known as the RMS are advisory only. Any pro-whaling nation can register 'reservations' to them and then set their own quotas or ignore quotas, regardless of sustainability.

Japan is the largest market in the world for seafood, it is also a market that has consistently put profits before sustainability. Japan was recently caught red handed ignoring its own Tuna quotas -

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6057576.stm

Japan also buys over quota Tuna from other nation members of international commercial supervisory organisations like ICCAT and buys Tuna from countries which refuse to recognise international Tuna quotas.

Japan, Norway and Iceland, the driving force behind attempts to overturn the IWC's international moratorium on commercial whaling already have cynical 'reservations' registered against most of the endangered whale species under CITES, as a result the Icelandic and Japanese whaling fleets are hunting protected whale species this season.

Urgent! ACT NOW to Protect North Atlantic Right Whale


Image courtesy of the Marine Mammal Commisssion


It appears that there is a very real chance that a significant number of the remaining (approx.350) critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale are about to be directly affected by the the start of the Canadian Lobster fishing season this week.

'Thirty to fifty of the world’s remaining North Atlantic right whales are in mortal danger. Lobster season has begun in the Bay of Fundy, and the whales which have usually left the area by this time of year are in grave danger of becoming ensnared in fishing gear and dying.'
- Defenders of Wildlife

Please use the link below immediately to send a message to the Canadian government to postpone the start of the lobster season for long enough for the whales to leave the fishery area in the Bay of Fundy.

Message supplied by Defenders of Wildlife, please add your name and address then cut and paste to Canadian Minister of Fisheries, Loyola Hearn -

Hearn.L@parl.gc.ca


Dear Minister,

As a supporter of Defenders of Wildlife and someone who cares about protecting endangered whales, I am writing to urge you to delay the opening of the Canadian lobster season in the Bay of Fundy in order to protect the highly endangered North Atlantic right whale.

As of early November, scientists reported that there were between 30 and 50 highly endangered right whales still present in these Canadian fishing grounds.

Fishing gear entanglements is the second-leading cause of death of right whales. And, with only an estimated 350 North Atlantic right whales left on the planet, the species simply cannot bear the risk of the fishery opening on top of such a significant percentage of the population.

While we recognize that a delay may impose some short-term hardship for fishermen, failing to delay the season for a reasonable amount of time until the whales have left may be fatal to some of the last remaining right whales on earth.

Because so few right whales are left, the loss of even one animal would contribute significantly to the risk of extinction for the entire species. Please act now to help protect them from Canadian lobster gear we can't afford delay.

Yours respectfully,