After 24 years of championing a ban on commercial whaling, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) will soon weigh a proposal seeking to resume commercial whaling.
The plan would let Japan, Norway and Iceland hunt the ocean giants openly despite a 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling. In return, whaling nations would agree to reduce their catch "significantly" over 10 years [AFP].
These pro-whaling nations have kept up their hunts either by officially objecting to the moratorium or by insisting that they're killing whales for scientific research. The proposal is due to be submitted before the body's annual meeting in June in Morocco, leading some conservationists to complain that the IWC should "save whales, and not whaling." The details of the proposal will made public on Earth day--April 22. Calling the withdrawal of the ban "the best chance to fight overfishing of these animals," U.S Commissioner to the IWC Monica Medina said:
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