Warning on whales' bleak future

[Guest guest]

Warning on whales' bleak future

 

Six cetacean species are critically endangered

Pro-whaling countries and chemical pollution are

creating an increasingly bleak outlook for whales,

according to campaigners. The warning comes as

delegates prepare for the annual International Whaling

Commission meeting, starting on Monday.

 

The Environmental Investigation Agency wants to make

pollution a priority at the meeting in Sorrento,

Italy.

 

But there are fears pro-whaling members who threaten

to create a separate alliance will dominate debate.

 

A report by the agency highlights how susceptible

whales, dolphins and porpoises are to toxic chemical

pollutants. It also warns there are health risks to

people who eat them.

 

" The threat of chemical pollutants to cetaceans is

real, " said the agency's Clare Perry.

 

Mercury levels

 

" Combined with an increase in the number of

pro-whaling countries joining the IWC, the outlook for

whales looks increasingly bleak.

 

" All IWC member countries, whether they support

commercial whaling or not, should consider the

significance of environmental threats to whales,

dolphins and porpoises. "

 

Mercury, brominated flame retardants, polychlorinated

biphenyls and other pesticides are among the toxic

chemicals thought to cause disorders including

reproductive failure, developmental problems and

cancer.

 

The agency says mercury levels in canned whale stew in

Japan are three times above permitted levels and

exposure to the chemicals causes neurological damage.

 

WHALING SINCE THE BAN

 

The number of whales killed by Japan, Norway and

Iceland since the IWC moratorium took effect in 1986

is 25,239 Most whales are killed with harpoons

designed to explode inside them, though small

traditional coastal communities use other methods

Opponents say the average estimated time to death is

more than two minutes, with some whales taking over an

hour to die.

 

The IWC has grown from 14 member states to 55 since it

was set up in 1946 both to conserve whales and to

develop the whaling industry.

 

It imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling, in

effect since 1986, to let whales recover from

centuries of industrial whaling which had left some

species near extinction.

 

Since then Japan, Norway and Iceland have killed

25,239 whales.

 

Six cetacean species are critically endangered and at

least one, the Yangtze River Basin Dolphin, is in

immediate danger of becoming the first cetacean

species whose extinction was caused by humans.

 

The warnings come as Japan has drawn up plans to

replace the International Whaling Commission with a

new pro-whaling alliance.

 

The IWC remains deadlocked between the countries

opposed to a resumption of commercial whaling and

those, led by Japan, which say it should go ahead.

 

Members of Japan's ruling party now say they are

prepared to go it alone and describe the IWC as

" totally dysfunctional " .

 

Whalewatch, a coalition of 140 organisations, is

lobbying the IWC to call a halt to all commercial and

scientific whaling on welfare grounds.

 

Naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough

supports the campaign.