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 n a surprise change of course, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) has opted to delay action on a deal that would have legalized commercial whaling for the first time in a generation. The proposed agreement, which followed years of closed-door negotiations, would have suspended the whaling ban for ten years and opened up a designated whale sanctuary to commercial whaling. But eleventh-hour action by NRDC and other conservation groups helped focus global outrage on the backroom deal. "This so-called compromise would have rewarded whale-killing nations for years of defying international law," says attorney Taryn Kiekow of NRDC's Marine Mammal Protection Project. "It's just the wrong approach. You can't save whales by killing them."
Despite the worldwide moratorium on whaling that has been in effect since 1986, Japan, Iceland and Norway have continued to kill whales under the guise of "scientific research" and other loopholes in the ban. In an attempt to bring rogue whaling under the control of the IWC, antiwhaling governments -- including the Obama Administration -- were prepared to trade away the moratorium and legalize whaling for profit. But just weeks before the IWC vote, NRDC supporter Pierce Brosnan helped kick off a massive email and ad campaign that generated 100,000 messages to the White House opposing the proposed deal. The outpouring was part of a worldwide outcry that helped build pressure on antiwhaling nations to toughen their stance in negotiations. In the end, after whaling nations insisted on the right to kill endangered, threatened and vulnerable species -- as well as the right to trade in whale meat and products -- the deal was shelved. NRDC is prepared to mobilize our Members and online activists again if the proposal is put back on the table. In the meantime, whales are still being slaughtered, and we will continue pressuring the Obama Administration and the IWC to put an end to commercial whaling -- in any form -- once and for all.
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“This so-called compromise would have rewarded whale-killing nations for years of defying international law. It's just the wrong approach. You can't save whales by killing them.”
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