Thaindian News

Apr 23 (THAINDIAN NEWS) According to reports from the Associated Press, the International Whaling Commission has proposed making hunting whale legal once again, under strict quotas, which would be the first legal commercial whale hunting in a quarter of a century.

Late Thursday the proposal was released that would allow Japan, Norway and Iceland, all of whom hunt whales under a variety of exceptions since the 1986 rulings, to hunt and catch whales for the next decade under very strict limits which would be set by the International Whaling Committee which would reduce the amount which could be caught. The proposal is said to trash the former exceptions, such as scientific research, which many people feel are just excuses to legally hunt whale anyway. Instead of these exceptions, the Committee would simply allow the countries which currently hunt whale to do so under restrictions set on the limits of the catch.

Japan currently has a self imposed quota of 935 Antarctic whales which are not considered endangered. That number would be lowered to 400 over the next five years, and then 200 in the following five years. Japan’s allowance of 320 sei and minke whales would be lowered to 210.

The proposal will be debated in a general meeting of the Committee in Morocco in June. The purpose is to form a compromise between the pro whaling nations and their opponents such as the United States and Australia.