Editor,
Two international organizations have just completed meetings; CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) in the Hague, Netherlands and the IWC (International Whaling Commission) in Anchorage, Alaska. What was the outcome?
For another year whaling countries failed to remove the protection status of the world’s whales. This means that all international traffic in whale products is illegal and a violation of CITES. Despite this ban, 1,000 whales are killed each year for profit. The IWC handed out quotas allowing the slaughter of humpback, fin, bowhead and gray whales this year.
Seven of the 13 great whale species remain endangered despite efforts to protect them. Along with continued illegal whaling, they are also threatened by pollution, ship traffic and overfishing of their food supply. A new threat from scientific whaling is just a loophole to continue the killing. I’m sure most people are familiar with the phrase, “If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck.” Hunting of a species until none are left is still extinction.
Whaling has no place in the 21st century. Has our compassion for other creatures evolved or is it still stuck in the bloody past? Laws are in place to protect whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary; however, they are not enforced. Why not?
I read the story in the Free Lance newspaper June 13, “Weapon Fragment Found in Whale Reveals Creature Was More Than a Century Old.” I felt it to be a very sad commentary on the life and death of a bowhead whale killed off the coast of Alaska. The whale’s age was estimated to be between 115 and 130 years old. He survived the first attempt on his life in 1890 but not the second attempt in 2007.
As the humpback whales, Delta and Dawn, returned to the Pacific, I couldn’t help but wonder what awaits them. A “Happy Ever After” or the sharp end-of-an-iron harpoon that will take the lives we so joyously celebrated. Who will take up the defense of these intelligent, socially-complex creatures? The gauntlet has been thrown on the table.
Linda Nolan
Hollister
