Whale Hunting to Continue in Antarctic Sanctuary
A whale refuge in the oceans off Antarctica will continue to be a hunting ground after international talks collapsed this week, conservationists say.
Contentious discussions at the International Whaling Commission annual meeting this week in Agadir, Morocco, focused on proposals that would have allowed limited commercial whaling to resume at low levels—but under tight IWC regulation and quotas that may have reduced current kill levels.
"Ultimately after a three-year process and intense negotiations of very polarized positions, things broke down," said Howard Rosenbaum, director of the Ocean Giants Program at the Wildlife Conservation Society, a New York-based nonprofit.
"And now the way forward isn't entirely clear. In the meantime, it seems like the situation will remain as the status quo," said Rosenbaum, who is also a member of the IWC scientific committee.
That
