IWC and Obama Want To Lift Ban On Commercial Whaling

It may not have shocked everyone to learn that Santa Monica, CA restaurant, HUMP, was selling whale meat sushi but this is gonna really blow you away.  The Obama administration has recently teamed up with the International Whaling Commission to lift the 25 year moratorium on commercial whaling for 10 years. This 10 year window will give the current major offenders of illegal whaling, such as Japan, a free pass in the interest of reducing whales killed.  It’s against the law now to kill whales for commercial purposes but lifting that ban will reduce those killed?  Does that make any sense?  Part of the new plan is to allow whaling of Sei and Fin whales, both of which are ENDANGERED SPECIES!!!!!

Currently, Japan sails it’s whaling boats through a giant loophole in the moratorium known as scientific exploration.  As long as they’re claiming to kill whales for scientific exploration, it’s ok.  Then how does so much whale meat end up on dinner plates?  Scientific exploration, their current loophole, will still be allowed under the proposal for legalization so they’ll now have two avenues by which

to slay these docile sea mammals.

Thanks to the Natural Resource Defense Council, there’s a movement to try and stop it.  We here at Shakedown News love movements so, below is the letter from James Bond himself, Pierce Brosnan, and the NRDC explaining more of what you can do to help.  Do what you can, I know we will.

An important message from Pierce Brosnan and the NRDC:

“The Obama Administration is backing a deadly deal that would make it legal once again to kill whales for profit. Please call on the President to reverse course.” -Pierce Brosnan

“I was appalled to hear — on Earth Day of all days — that the International Whaling Commission has put forward a deal that would legalize commercial whaling for the first time in a generation.

Even worse, the Obama Administration has backed this deadly proposal, which would suspend the international ban on whaling and make it legal once again to kill whales for profit.

During his campaign, President Obama promised America he would oppose the killing of these magnificent creatures. It’s time for you and me to hold him to that promise.

Please call on the White House to oppose any deal that would legitimize the hunting and killing of whales.

Obama Administration officials claim that the IWC deal would be a “step forward” for whales because it could rein in Japan, Iceland and Norway, which have killed thousands of whales since 1986 by exploiting loopholes in the whaling ban.

But, in fact, this new deal is a giant step backward. It rewards those three nations for years of defying international law. It does their bidding by suspending the whaling ban for 10 years. It opens up the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary to whaling. And it will not stop them from trading in whale meat or killing whales under legal loopholes like “scientific permits.”

Don’t believe for a minute that this kind of deal would phase down whaling. Instead, it would breathe new life into a dying industry.

Worst of all, the deal gives moral cover to the absurd notion that we can save whales by killing them — instead of by banning their slaughter.

There is no moral justification for killing whales. There is no scientific justification for killing whales.

And if the Obama Administration persists in supporting a deal that encourages the killing of whales, it will tarnish not only the White House but our entire nation.

Please join me in telling President Obama to vigorously oppose this deal and instead push for a deal that closes the loopholes and ends commercial whaling once and for all!

Thanks to the efforts of NRDC, you and I have prevailed so many times in defense of our planet’s whales. We saved the gray whale’s last untouched nursery in Mexico’s San Ignacio Lagoon against Mitsubishi’s plans for industrialization. And we reined in the Navy’s use of dangerous sonar systems around marine mammals.

Now, with our own government supporting an unthinkable deal that would legalize the commercial killing of whales, we must unite again and say: Not on our watch!

I hope you’ll make your own voice heard inside the White House today. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Pierce Brosnan
Natural Resources Defense Council”