The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) have responded to an International Whaling Commission (IWC) whaling “peace” plan with the accusation that the plan is nothing more than a “Whalers Charter”.

Peace Plan

The IWC  released a statement on their website on May 7^th entitled “If you really care about whale conservation – give our proposal a fair reading” , and despite portraying the press release as a “peace plan” now face a backlash from the WDCS who claim that the plan is nothing more than thinly veiled emotional black mail.

Manipulation

The proposal which aims to offer reasons to lift the current ban on whaling and would instate legal commercial whaling quotes for the next 10 years contains a number of new terms for whaling not found in the International Convention on the Regulation of Whaling, which the IWS believe is an attempt to “verbally manipulate the debate”. The proposal also asks for number of compromises which they believe are neither appropriate nor useful and lastly admits that it will not address any conservation concerns, giving the whalers what they want before even entertaining the issues raised by the WDCS.

‘Whalers Charter’

“WDCS has given the proposed ‘deal’ fair and careful reading, but no matter how you look at it, it’s a ‘whalers charter’. We urge conservation Governments not to give in to the blackmail, and save whales, not whaling,” said WDCS CEO Chris Butler-Stroud.

Protest

The WDCS believes that fundamentally the plan put forward by the IWC put whale conservation back 30 years and urge the public and governments to protest against their proposals before the “flood gates” are opened to a international whale slaughter.

The plan will be voted upon this June and it is then that the fate of the world’s whales will be decided.