MEDIA RELEASE

1 March 2010

NZ Government urged to fight for whaling phase out

The New Zealand Government should follow Australia’s lead and call for a gradual phasing out of whaling when it meets with members of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) at a special meeting in Florida on 2nd and 3rd March, the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) said today.

WSPA New Zealand’s Programme Manager, Bridget Vercoe, said the Australian proposal called for an end to whaling in the Antarctic Ocean within five years, and a phasing out of all other whaling worldwide – with the exception of aboriginal subsistence whaling – within a reasonable time period.

“WSPA warmly congratulates the government of Australia for its visionary and holistic proposal to secure a future for both whales and the IWC. Set against the disastrous proposal released by the IWC on Tuesday which would see commercial whaling legitimised and endorsed, it is encouraging that Australia is standing firm in its conviction to bring a permanent end to commercial and ‘scientific’ whaling.”

“If the New Zealand Government really cared about the welfare of whales it would reject the IWC proposal in favour of the Australian,” she said.

“The IWC proposal is littered with inconsistencies – keeping the moratorium in place but allowing commercial whaling, creating new whale sanctuaries but allowing whaling in existing ones. In attempting to please the three countries who doggedly persist in whaling, it will undoubtedly displease the many IWC member nations who wish to see the IWC protect whales, not whaling.

“Perhaps the most extraordinary thing about this proposal,” said Ms Vercoe, “is that it suggests that considerable additional costs of monitoring and managing these whaling operations should be met by all IWC members. It’s hard to imagine New Zealand taxpayers being happy to find themselves helping fund commercial whaling.”

Last year more than 13,000 New Zealanders added their name to a statement telling the Government to reject any proposal which would effectively lift the moratorium on commercial whaling.

“We hope the Government will listen to this strong message from the New Zealand public,” said Ms Vercoe.

`Over the last twenty years the whaling nations have met with global condemnation for flouting the whaling ban and killing over 25,000 whales. To now reward this behaviour by offering up yet more whales is tantamount to waving the white flag of defeat.

ends

© Scoop Media