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BIG BLUE MARCH: Just prior to the IWC meeting, people took to the streets in more than 50 locations around the world for the Big Blue March, voicing their support for the world's whales, and calling for an end to commercial whaling.
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Their numbers were greatly bolstered by Croatia, Greece, Cyprus and a few of Japan's supporters changed sides. And despite the IWC being over for the year, Uruguay has just announced its intention to join the fight for the whales at the next meeting.
With such good numbers, you'd have expected great things to happen, but in reality, the IWC is truly stuck. Although a number of significant resolutions were passed to protect whales, there remains a gulf as wide as the Southern Ocean between the pro and anti whaling lobbies and the Japanese scientific whaling programme will still go ahead this summer.
The meeting began with a request by the Japanese government to act civilly, but soon saw accusations of "hate votes", the refusal of pro-whaling countries to participate in votes they didn't like the look of, threats to walk away from the whole process and an almost total failure of all members to consider in detail the real threats to whales and dolphins.
Greenpeace has long been pushing for the IWC to be modernised so it's a relevant institution for addressing the threats to our oceans and whales in the 21st century. And the one bright spark in the week of meetings was consensus that the IWC cannot remain in its current state. A special meeting to discuss how to move this forward was agreed.
We just have to make makes sure the Commission ensures the pace of modernisation outstrips that of extinction.
Alongside the efforts to modernize the IWC, our work in Japan to inform and engage the public on this issue (and indications that public opinion is slowly shifting) will continue to be the best chance we have to bring commercial whaling to an end.
With such good numbers, you'd have expected great things to happen, but in reality, the IWC is truly stuck. Although a number of significant resolutions were passed to protect whales, there remains a gulf as wide as the Southern Ocean between the pro and anti whaling lobbies and the Japanese scientific whaling programme will still go ahead this summer.
The meeting began with a request by the Japanese government to act civilly, but soon saw accusations of "hate votes", the refusal of pro-whaling countries to participate in votes they didn't like the look of, threats to walk away from the whole process and an almost total failure of all members to consider in detail the real threats to whales and dolphins.
Greenpeace has long been pushing for the IWC to be modernised so it's a relevant institution for addressing the threats to our oceans and whales in the 21st century. And the one bright spark in the week of meetings was consensus that the IWC cannot remain in its current state. A special meeting to discuss how to move this forward was agreed.
We just have to make makes sure the Commission ensures the pace of modernisation outstrips that of extinction.
Alongside the efforts to modernize the IWC, our work in Japan to inform and engage the public on this issue (and indications that public opinion is slowly shifting) will continue to be the best chance we have to bring commercial whaling to an end.
