Our reaction to the JARPA resolution: Japan's whaling censured
Posted by Dave (live from the International Whaling Commission in Anchorage, Alaska)
Well, it's all gone weird here - a resolution, proposed by New Zealand, and backed up a plethora of other countries, for Japan to stop its lethal research in the Southern Ocean has been passed by the IWC. Of course, Greenpeace supports this!
It got voted in by mostly pro-whales countries - where all of the countries who've been "bought" by Japan abstained. The problem is, while this is a sort of a vote of "no confidence" in Japan' "research", it's non-binding - it's basically a "telling off" by the conservation-minded countries showing their lack of support for Japan's "scientific whaling" in the Southern Ocean.
According to our delegation leader, Shane, "It has been acknowledged by the International Whaling Commission that none of the goals of Japan's Antarctic whaling programme from 1987 to 2005 were reached and the programme was not needed or wanted, yet more than 7,000 whales were killed in the process. The JARPA II programme that began two years ago must be immediately ended before thousands more whales die needlessly".
"Any other scientific program in any other field that took this many samples without significant conclusions being reached would lose it's funding, and the same thing should happen here."
Alas, with all this countries refused to particpate is a little bit worrying - refusing to take part because they don't like the question does not show any commitment to making the International Whaling Commission function properly.
