The false choice.

The recent attempts by Japan to change the IWC were put into words by the WDCS quite well.

At this week’s intersessional meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in Rome, a proposal which would lift the ban by granting Japan legal commercial whaling quotas in its coastal waters is to be discussed. In return Japan would voluntarily reduce its controversial scientific whaling in Antarctica.

Now, a new report, ‘Small Type Whaling, A false choice for the IWC’, reveals that the longstanding case Japan has put forward to the IWC for these quotas is inaccurate and flawed.

WDCS’s Sue Fisher said ‘The reality is that Japan does not need coastal whaling and it is attempting to blackmail the IWC into doing its bidding. The real danger of the deal being considered is it implies that coastal whaling is the lesser of two evils.
“However, if adopted, it would lift the ban on commercial whaling and open the floodgates for other countries to restart or expand their own whaling. The IWC is being given a false choice.”