The International Whaling Commission (IWC) had its annual meeting last week. There were some victories for whales, some defeats and several countries very upset with how the commission ruled on their individual cases. Once more, a few countries were looking to expand the quotas of whales they are allowed to hunt each year or get those quotas renewed for another period. The main offenders, of course, were Japan and Denmark.
Japan wanted permission to start whaling activities off of their coast in a more official manner than the current means of hunting whales for food under the guise of scientific research. This proposal was denied and Japan responded by threatening to drop out of the organization altogether.
