This week we’re attending the annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission to keep a watchful eye on any negotiations that might lead to legitimizing commercial whaling. We’ve been quite busy working around the clock for the whales and to prove to everyone that whales are meant to be seen, not hurt. Sadly, as the clock ticks on the conference room wall Iceland continues to kill endangered fin whales. Just this morning the whalers killed two more of these rare giants. The same whales my friends in Iceland’s whale watching industry depends on.
On Tuesday we released Whale Watching Worldwide and Australian minister Peter Garrett introduced the IFAW report to the IWC Commission meeting with an excellent speech, crediting IFAW for its production on the floor of the meeting. There was a great deal of support among the countries in attendance for the report.
Japan’s ‘scientific whaling’ in the North Pacific was discussed and as usual the pro-whaling countries praised the critical importance of lethal research. I’m sure if Japan’s supermarkets were in attendance they’d praise the program for affording government subsidized meat to sell on its shelves. It was nice to hear the US representative strongly oppose scientific whaling - a product of IFAW’s diligent efforts to put pressure on the US government.
Stay tuned for the latest on our hard work to protect these great animals.



