01/05/03

Rows threaten to sink whaling commission

By: David Cyranoski

We encourage you to republish this article online and in print, it’s free under our creative commons attribution license, but please follow some simple guidelines:

You have to credit our authors.
You have to credit SciDev.Net — where possible include our logo with a link back to the original article.
You can simply run the first few lines of the article and then add: “Read the full article on SciDev.Net” containing a link back to the original article.
If you want to also take images published in this story you will need to confirm with the original source if you're licensed to use them.
The easiest way to get the article on your site is to embed the code below.

For more information view our media page and republishing guidelines.

The full article is available here as HTML.

Press Ctrl-C to copy

<div class="article-wrap">
<div id="article-introduction">
<h1>Rows threaten to sink whaling commission</h1>
<h4>By: David Cyranoski</h4>
</div>
<br />
<br />

<div id="article-body">
<p><TABLE align=right></p>
<p><TR><br />
<TD class=tabletext><IMG src="http://c96265.r65.cf3.rackcdn.com/2002may_bowhead_whales.jpg"><BR>Bowhead whales – Balaena mysticetus</TD></TR></TABLE>Bitter arguments between pro- and anti-whaling lobbies at the annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) have left some observers fearing that the organisation will fall apart, raising the spectre of unregulated commercial whaling.<BR><BR>At the meeting, Japan lobbied to overturn a moratorium on commercial whaling on the grounds that some whales, such as the minke, are abundant enough to support an end to the ban. <BR><BR>As expected, Japan’s attempt was rejected. But the big surprise was the voting down of a US-Russian request for a five-year extension to an agreement that allows aboriginal communities in Alaska and Russia to take a yearly quota of 280 endangered bowhead whales.<BR><BR>Reference: <em>Nature</em> 417, 476 (2002)<BR><BR><a href="/ http://www.nature.com/login/scidev_login.taf?ref=/nature/journal/v417/n6888/full/417476b_fs.html" target="_blank" onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/tracking/external/'+this.href);" rel="noopener noreferrer">Link to full text </A><BR><BR>Photo credit: NOAA</p>

</div>
<div class="quick-links-wrapper">
<h3>You might also like</h3>
[related-articles]
</div>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/news/rows-threaten-to-sink-whaling-commission/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function(e,t,n,r,i,s,o){e["GoogleAnalyticsObject"]=i;e[i]=e[i]||function(){(e[i].q=e[i].q||[]).push(arguments)},e[i].l=1*new Date;s=t.createElement(n),o=t.getElementsByTagName(n)[0];s.async=1;s.src=r;o.parentNode.insertBefore(s,o)})(window,document,"script","//www.google-analytics.com/ga.js","ga");var _gaq=_gaq||[];var _gaq=_gaq||[];_gaq.push(["_setAccount","UA-3223906-8"],["_trackEvent","article interaction","republished","https://www.scidev.net/global/news/rows-threaten-to-sink-whaling-commission/",null,true])
</script>
</div>

Bowhead whales – Balaena mysticetus

Bitter arguments between pro- and anti-whaling lobbies at the annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) have left some observers fearing that the organisation will fall apart, raising the spectre of unregulated commercial whaling.

At the meeting, Japan lobbied to overturn a moratorium on commercial whaling on the grounds that some whales, such as the minke, are abundant enough to support an end to the ban.

As expected, Japan’s attempt was rejected. But the big surprise was the voting down of a US-Russian request for a five-year extension to an agreement that allows aboriginal communities in Alaska and Russia to take a yearly quota of 280 endangered bowhead whales.

Reference: Nature 417, 476 (2002)

Link to full text

Photo credit: NOAA