Whales Face Momentous Vote

Update:Ah, there is good news today!  Whales have won a reprieve at the IWC meeting in Morocco. The international body has decided to postpone a vote  on whether to allow the resumption of commercial whaling. Apparently the buzz at the meeting was not whaling, but the secret effort by Japan to buy votes to end the moratorium. Public outcry against whaling also helped convince the Commission to table the issue for now in the face of a deadlock. ;The substitute chairman, Anthony Liverpool of Antiqua and Barbuda was implicated in the vote buying scandal. His hotel bill from June 13 to June 28 at the Atlas Amadil Beach Hotel was paid by Japan Tours & Travel linked to Japanese businessman Hideuki "Harry" Wakasa who lives in Houston, Texas. The proposal would have allowed commercial whaling in the Southern Ocean sanctuary for a period of ten years. It was in essence, an immoral endorsement of the idea that humans can only save the whales by killing them

{17.6.10}Japan will take its ethnocentric, decades long battle to resume commercial whaling to the IWC at a meeting in Morocco next week, where a final vote on ending the twenty-four year moratorium will be taken.  "Small people" around the world have been signing petitions against the resumption of commercial whaling, but pressure from the other side has been considerable too.  The Times of London reports an undercover journalist was able to interest an official from Guinea in financial aid in return for their vote at the IWC.  Ibrahima Sory Sylla told the reporter that Japan had already made a generous cash donation to his minister, and that they would make a good counteroffer.  According to the Times, Japan has gained the support of 38 of the IWC's 88 members.  It needs 75% of the vote to overturn the ban.  As part of the newspaper's undercover investigation, journalists posing as anti-whaling lobbyists approached six small countries with offers of financial aid in return for their votes at the IWC. The countries indicated they were willing to consider the offers of support, and revealed the extent of Japanese vote-buying during discussions.