Posts Tagged ‘IWC’
A day of highs and lows for whales: round-up of final day of the IWC meeting in Slovenia
The day began with the Distinguished Commissioner for Australia reporting on the Finance and Administration Committee, noting that Japan has offered to Chair the ‘Working Group on Support for New Countries’. There is some laughter in the margins, as many people believe Japan has already been running its own ‘Recruitment Working Group’. There is some debate…
Read MoreIWC passes Resolution to implement ICJ ruling and control future 'Article VIII' whaling
The IWC has today passed a resolution that seeks to control scientific whaling. The full text is below. After much efforts at reaching consensus, New Zealand had to press ahead and return to its earlier draft as below Whaling under Special Permit Submitted by New Zealand IWC/65/14 Rev1 Agenda item 15 Noting the judgment of March 31, 2014…
Read MoreIWC – Day Three Round up from Slovenia
Day Three So what did yesterday’s closed-door session reveal? From the opening session it’s hard to tell. Scientific permits and the impact of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) We should have seen how this was going to go when Japan insisted that there was only one way to objectively read the ICJ Judgment and that…
Read MoreGreenland and the IWC – what comes next?
The issue of whaling in Greenland is, of course, an emotive one. For those that do not wish to see any whales killed, they find it hard to understand why anyone would or could kill a whale in any circumstance. For the indigenous hunter in Greenland whose parents and grandparents have hunted whales for millennia,…
Read MoreThirty-five governments call on Iceland to stop whaling
A formal diplomatic protest, known as a démarche, was today delivered to the Icelandic Government in Reykjavik. The top-level protest registered countries’ “strong opposition” to Iceland’s continued whaling, particularly of endangered fin whales. The démarche also objects to Iceland’s international trade in whale products, stating: “Fin whales and minke whales are listed under the Convention…
Read MoreWhilst the EU sacrifices political capital for Greenlandic whaling, what are Greenland and the Faroese doing?
So the EU Commission is extending itself to support Greenland’s demands for overturning the IWC’s accepted criteria for aboriginal subsistence whaling (ASW), but what is Greenland and the Faroe Islands, Denmark’s two North Atlantic overseas territories doing to help the EU Commission? Well, nothing it would seem. The Arctic Journal reports that whilst ‘foreign policy in…
Read MoreHas The Netherlands broken ranks to criticise Greenlandic whaling?
The EU Commission has been working hard to keep all EU members aligned with its instructions that they must support Denmark and Greenland and to date, has suffered no criticism without retalitory private hand slaps being handed out to wayward countries that didn’t swallow the Greenland pitch that it should be able to sell to tourists…
Read MoreWDC exposes heavy promotion of whale meat to tourists in Greenland
Investigations in Greenland by Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) have revealed whale meat meant for local Greenlandic people is openly on sale to tourists. The discovery comes as the 65th meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) – the body that regulates whaling – begins in Portoroz, Slovenia. This is a damning revelation coming, as it…
Read MoreSometimes there are no words
Date: September 3rd, 2014. Destination: Iceland Location: Whaling station, Hvalfjörður Target: Fin whale #109 of the season The IWC is meeting in Slovenia this September. A new report on fin whaling in Iceland can be found here. There continues to be overwhelming public opposition to Icelandic whaling. Help WDC stop this cruel activity today.
Read MoreWho really benefits from the EU Commission’s drive to deliver Greenland a quota?
With apologies to Abba Eban, one used to be able to say that ‘the EU could always be counted on to do the right thing…but only after they have exhausted all other possibilities’. And, whilst that particular line is a cliché applied to many nations and institutions, it’s normally true in my experience in respect…
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