New Zealand is also reportedly planning to go along with the whale hunt changes as well. The administration was impressive with it's attempts to join the ban on fishing Atlantic bluefin tuna but this? What are they thinking? The US position has to do with supporting the Inuit hunting in Alaska, which is understandable, but expanding the whale hunts that use massive fishing fleets is unthinkable. How are they even having this discussion about hunting in a marine sanctuary?
The moratorium on commercial whaling, one of the environmental movement's greatest achievements, looks likely to be swept away this summer by a new international deal being negotiated behind closed doors. The new arrangement would legitimise the whaling activities of the three countries which have continued to hunt whales in defiance of the ban – Japan, Norway and Iceland – and would allow commercial whaling in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary set up by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in 1994.
Conservationists regard it as catastrophic, but fear there is a very real chance of its being accepted at the next IWC meeting in Morocco in June, not least because it is being strongly supported by the US – previously one of whaling's most determined opponents.
Should the deal go ahead, it would represent one of the most significant setbacks ever for conservation, and as big a failure for wildlife protection as December's Copenhagen conference was for action on climate change.
