South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary Is Blocked Yet Again By Pro-Whaling Countries

A decades - long proposal to create a whale sanctuary in the South Atlantic Ocean has been thwarted yet again , with 25 pro - whaling nations blocking the move at the   International Whaling Commission ( IWC ) in Brazil earlier this calendar week .

" As minister for the environment in a nation with 20 percent of the world ’s biodiversity in its forests , we feel highly responsible for the stewardship of our wealth , for the whole world , and this go for cetaceans as well , " Edson Duarte , Brazil ’s environment minister , tell an hearing of delegates , reportsAFP .

Had it move through it would be the third heavyweight sanctuary recognized by the IWC and its 89 member Department of State , one of which is in   the Indian Ocean and the other is in the Southern Ocean , close to Antarctica .

But to reach it necessitate the right to vote of at least three - quarters of the member states – and it failed , receiving just 39 rather . Three countries abstained and the remaining 25 nation , including pro - whaling nations Norway , Japan , and Russia , actively voted against it .

Their   reason for doing so ? on the face of it , there is n’t the science to back it up . They added that it was n’t postulate because commercial whaling does not take place in the South Atlantic , which is rigorously speaking truthful but only in an passing   limited and technical sense .

This is not the first time the sanctuary has been aim and no doubt it wo n’t be the last meter . Duarte has already said it is not the end , reportsThe Guardian . “ We will work in other meeting of this delegacy this yr to ensure that the sanctuary will finally be create , ” he said .

“ It so significant for the preservation of whale in the entire creation but especially in the South Atlantic . ”

But many have tell it will be impossible to do so without the funding of the pro - whaling nations and to derive that musical accompaniment there will have to be concession . This may include the reintroduction of at least some commercial-grade whaling , a practice that has been wholly proscribe since the installing of a ban in 1980 . Not that that forbidding has n’t beenroutinely floutedby state deciding the rule does not apply to them . ( Or under the dubious guise of"scientific research " . )