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 …
Market forces have achieved what international laws could not. Iceland, one of the prominent defaulters of the International Whaling Commission (iwc), has had to put a stop to whaling due to the falling demand for whale meat. Icelandic fisheries minister Einar Guofinnsson says whaling quotas will not be renewed after …
Chilean scientists recently identified fossils of whales believed to have died around five million years ago. The fossils were discovered a month back by some teenagers while on a field trip near Los Maitenes village, about 160 km from the capital Santiago. They found jawbones, backbones and ribs of four …
A fragment of an exploding harpoon used by whalers in the 1800s has been found in a whale caught off Alaska, suggesting that the animal could be nearly 130 years old. The find has given researchers a rare insight into the precise age of the whale, as till now a …
The international body on whaling has renewed a five-year whaling quota for Eskimos for subsistence hunting in the us and Russia on May 29. The 76-nation International Whaling Commission voted by consensus to allow 280 bowhead whales to be hunted and caught until 2012. About 260 bowheads were reserved for …
"JAPAN threatens to quit whaling forum." It's a headline we have got used to reading, but behind the rhetoric this year's meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) saw a shift in power that has put Japan in a bind.
Responding to Japan's appeal, 35 members of the International Whaling Commission (iwc) recently attended the Conference for the Normalization of the International Whaling Commission at Tokyo. Experts see the meet as a show of strength by the pro-whaling lobby ahead of the annual meeting of iwc, which is scheduled for …
Angering environmentalists, the us Defense Department has exempted the Navy from complying with the Marine Mammal Protection Act for the next two years. The Navy contended that it needs the exemption, allowed under the 2004 National Defense Authorization Act, to have enough time to conduct environmental impact statements for sonar …
In a bid to help lift a global moratorium on hunting of whales, Japan has invited all the 72 members of the International Whaling Commission (iwc) for a special meeting. The meeting is to demonstrate support from other pro-whaling countries like the African, Pacific and Caribbean nations, note media reports. …
researchers from usa and Denmark have confirmed an association between increased exposure to persistent organic pollutants (pops) like polychlorinated biphenyls (pcb) and decreased antibody production in children vaccinated against tetanus and diphtheria. Action against pops was initiated in the early 1970s. The Stockholm Convention, banning use of pops, was signed …
THE government of Iceland recently resumed commercial whaling, contravening a 20-year international moratorium instigated by the International Whaling Commission (IWC). Iceland's ministry of fisheries announced permission for the commercial hunting of 30 mink and nine-fin whales. Fin whales fall under the Red list of endangered species. IWC issued special permits …
Iceland has resumed whale meat exports after a gap of more than 15 years. It recently sold minke whale meat from its scientific whaling programme to the Faroe Islands. Environmental groups say the trade contravenes the un's Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (cites). Iceland's whaling commissioner, however, says …
Norway recently hit back at a group of 12 nations led by the uk, which insisted the Scandinavian country put an end to whale hunts. Norway broke the global moratorium on commercial whaling in 1993 and will harpoon the largest number of whales in 2006 since the 1980s. The nations …
The Norwegian government has given whale hunters permission to kill 1,052 Minke whales in 2006, up from a record-high of 796 last year, despite an international moratorium against it. This follows a parliament decision taken unanimously. The World Wide Fund for Nature has flayed the decision, which would expand hunts …
sleepless babies: Newborn dolphins and killer whales don't sleep for a whole month after birth, says a study by a team led by Jerome Siegel of the University of California at Los Angeles, US. The mothers also stay awake over the period to keep a close eye on their offspring. …
Though a two-decade-old ban on commercial whaling was upheld at the International Whaling Commission's (IWC's) recently concluded annual meet in Ulsan, South Korea, the anti-whaling parties had little to rejoice. The reason: the evident alarming increase in the strength of the pro-whaling lobby. The close defeat of Japan's proposal to …
In a surprise move, the Australian government, which vociferously opposes whaling at all international fora, has decided to not support a lawsuit filed by an Australian animal rights group against a Japanese whaling company. The Humane Society International had last year sued the Kyodo Senpaku company for alleged illegal slaughter …
Tata Chemicals and Gujarat Heavy Chemicals have pitched in their mite behind the effort to save the whale shark Aunique corporate-ngo partnership in coastal Gujarat has succeeded in giving a new lease of life to the spectacular whale shark, the world's largest fish, which was being poached almost to extinction …
eating seafood with high levels of mercury can affect the brain development of older children, indicates a study published in the online edition of the journal Nature. The finding intensifies the ongoing debate about the health effects of methylmercury
It took just five votes to shake the very edifice of the International Whaling Commission (iwc). Voting 25-20 in favour of setting up a controversial committee, the North-dominated anti-whaling faction drastically altered the iwc mandate
