The Australian government has condemned Japan's "regrettable" decision to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission and resume commercial whaling. The Japanese government's withdrawal from the global body, announced on Wednesday, will see commercial hunts in the country's territorial and economic waters start in July 2019. Announcing the decision, Chief Cabinet …
IN BUT one example of the heady new world opening up to civilian scientists after the end of the Cold War, biologists used the US navy's formerly top secret underwater listening devices to track a blue whale for 43 days. Marine biologist Adam S Frankel said the surveillance system has …
SMALL is beautiful. Notwithstanding the anti-whale tone of the comment, the remark holds true for this book. Whaling Issues and Japan's Whale Research should ideally be called a booklet on a big animal. The book makes you realise the present whaling controversy is more complex than newspaper reports would have …
"OUR ANGER has grown to its highest level," fumed Kazuo Shima, the Japanese delegate to the annual general meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), after Tokyo's attempts at yen diplomacy failed to prevent an extension of the global ban on commercial whaling (Down To Earth, April 30, 1993). The …
GIVEN Doordarshan's current preoccupation with movies for entertainment, it seems to have cheerfully tossed science and environment programmes out through the window. Nothing notable has been shown on the small screen in recent months except for a film on the Narmada dam, already reviewed in this column. Fortunately, Star Plus …
THE NORWEGIAN embassy in Washington is being flooded with letters protesting Oslo's decision to resume commercial whaling in June and scientific whaling in April (See Down To Earth, July 31, 1992). Norwegian minister of fisheries Jan Henry Olsen has warned if the ban on whaling continues, his country would be …
A LARGE number of dead whales were found washed up by whale scientist Roger Payne in Patagonia, Chile. The cause of death was apparently skin infections. The mysterious human-AIDS-like plague, which attacked the whales' immune system, was also reported in large areas as diversely located as the South Pacific and …
THE EUROPEAN Community (EC) has decided to seek membership to the International Whaling Commission (IWC). At present, the EC is a member only of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation though seven EC nations are individual members of the IWC. In the wake of this decision, the EC has informed …
