< Whales

Whaling On Humpbacks Approved

The 2010 meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) did not, as feared, vote to legalize commercial whaling. The Obama administration, for reasons incomprehensible to us, tried to broker a deal that would have allowed the resumption of commercial whaling.

But, sadly, the IWC handed Greenland a quota to kill nine humpbacks each year from the population that winters in the Caribbean and passes by New England during the summer. The United States was among the delegates to vote for this quota. The quota was granted on an “aboriginal need” by the Inuit of Greenland. Aboriginal whaling quotas were designed to allow people who have limited food sources to hunt only enough to feed themselves.

But in outstanding investigative work, WDCS has shown that the meat of fin and minke whales now taken goes to high end restaurants and markets for consumption by wealthy consumers and tourists. The Inuit are getting cut out by the big money interests.

Greenlanders also hunt the magnificent beluga whale, actually a dolphin with a huge brain and highly evolved social relationships. Also the rare and endangered Narwal.

While we recognize the importance of hunting and fishing to the peoples of the north, Narwal and Beluga should not be hunted for the simple reason that their meat contains high levels of heavy metals and organic pollutants.

Let the United States and Denmark know how you feel about the slaughter of these whales.

Contact U.S. President Obama

Link  to http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

Contact the Danish Prime Minister at stm@stm.dk

For unique and magnificent videos of humpbacks mating, narrated by Ted Danson, see our film Humpback Whales Mating.