IWC53: entrance
At today's IWC the voting on the Revised Management Scheme did not go ahead after being withdrawn from the agenda by the Chair. Greenpeace supports the Chair in this decision, stating that,
"The IWC acted responsibly by not agreeing to a management scheme that would have led to the resumption of commercial whaling, especially in view of the fact that whales are faced with a number of serious environmental threats such as chemical pollution, noise pollution climate change and over-fishing."
"In addition, history has shown us that commercial whaling cannot be managed and has always led to gross over-exploitation and depletion of stocks."
However, Greenpeace remains concerned that Japan is buying votes at the IWC. This year, the two whaling nations - Japan and Norway - were supported by a number of countries that voted in support of their pro-whaling agenda in exchange for Japanese Overseas Development Assistance.
Unless member states address Japanese vote buying, year on year we can expect Japan to continue buying new members into the IWC until they acheive their goal of overturning the moratorium and resuming large scale factory ship whaling of the kind that led many great whale populations to the brink of extinction.
