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Irreconcilable Differences: The International Whaling Commission and Cetacean Futures
Author(s) -
Stoett Peter
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
review of policy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.832
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1541-1338
pISSN - 1541-132X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1541-1338.2011.00529.x
Subject(s) - whaling , futures contract , citation , commission , political science , sociology , law , history , economics , financial economics , archaeology
The International Whaling Commission was mandated to protect the whaling industry back in 1946. As the threat of extinction for several species of cetaceans rose and whales assumed a prominent space in public environmental consciousness, the IWC gradually swung towards an anti-whaling position, led by the United States and some key European states. A moratorium on whaling was passed by three-fourths majority vote in 1982, with exceptions for “aboriginal” and “scientific” whaling. The decision was never taken well by several whaling states, including Norway, Japan, Iceland and others. A diplomatic war has erupted, complete with development assistance weaponry and public chastisement, but the battle has rarely entered the economic realm, despite threats from the United States that it would utilize various pieces of legislation permitting the application of sanctions related to marine mammal protection. Now that Iceland has made it clear it wishes to continue a small hunt, anti-whaling advocates are clamoring for the Obama Administration to apply sanctions. The main concern here seems to be that Iceland has resumed hunting Fin whales, the second largest of the great whales (and indeed the second largest mammal on earth), still considered endangered by most counts.