100,000 petition to prevent whale killing

Many Gloucestershire signatures, including my own, will have been among the 100,000 who hand-signed the petition to EU calling for existing loopholes in EU legislation that permit whale killing.

Photos: Left a picture I took of whale meat for sale in a Norwegian market and below a photo from Campaign Whale (see below)

A report produced by the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development (FIELD) for Campaign Whale last year exposed serious flaws in existing legislation intended to protect whales. They would permit the killing of whales for so-called 'scientific' and ‘fisheries management’ purposes - even in the 'overriding public interest' - which might be used to justify whaling for 'cultural' or economic reasons. All these arguments are currently used by whalers to justify the ongoing slaughter of whales in defiance of international agreements. The petition calls for these loopholes to be closed and for a freestanding EU Regulation banning whaling forever.

The Campaign Whale/FIELD report also reveals that EU law for the protection of whales is inextricably linked to decisions made in other fora, such as the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Both of these are in danger of being overwhelmed by Japan's so-called 'vote-consolidation' programme - the recruitment of pro-whaling votes through Development Aid packages - meaning vital protection measures could be overturned in the near future. Only last year, the whalers gained a voting majority at the IWC for the first time in over 20 years.

Dr Caroline Lucas, Green MEP who helped present the petition to the EU and is vice president of the European Parliament’s cross-party Animal Welfare ‘intergroup’, said: “I call on the European Commission to make clear that it is unacceptable for member states to turn a blind eye to whaling in order to preserve fisheries agreements with countries such as Iceland, Norway and the Faroes. These nations need their EU fish markets more than they need whaling, so the EU can and should take a strong stand, linking fisheries agreements to conservation guarantees, as in the US.”

For more info see Campaign Whale - this is dedicated to the protection of whales, dolphins and porpoises, and the environment: www.campaign-whale.org Campaign Whale is founder and coordinator of the Global Whale Alliance, an alliance of over 150 groups in over 30 countries, fighting the resumption of commercial whaling.

See also press release from Green party nationally re sharks this last week:
http://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/3175