The administration of new US President Barack Obama will signal a far stronger anti-whaling stand at the International Whaling Commission meeting in Rome, which started yesterday, reports AFP.
The Obama administration will oppose whaling, stating that “The United States continues to view the commercial whaling moratorium as a necessary conservation measure, and believes that lethal scientific whaling is unnecessary in modern whaling conservation management.”
Australia too is seeking an end to all commercial whaling by the Japanese in the Antarctic. the battlefield for a whale war between the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and the Japanese whalers.
Environmentalists argue that it is immoral to hunt whales, and that there are too few whales to justify this. The Japanese say that whaling is a tradition and that its culture is not respected.
The Whale Commission will try to negotiate a compromise solution, allowing the Japanese to hunt whales closer to its own shores, while reducing its activities in the Antarctic.
