Monitor/Comment
Protect the whales
Times Colonist

The Hindu, Madras

July 31, 2005

A large group of countries led by Japan has again failed in its campaign to pressure the International Whaling Commission into lifting the 19-year-old ban on hunting whales for commerce.

The victory for the anti-whaling countries in the 66-member body at the recent meeting in South Korea is far from emphatic: The ban was retained by a wafer-thin margin of six votes.

Japan is an aggressive whaling power that opposes ocean sanctuaries and kills whales ostensibly to advance science.

The available evidence points to a decline in the population of many kinds of whales and a parallel rise in human pressures on the environment. The commission must work hard to put in place a complete ban in perpetuity.