Environment Forum
Global environmental challenges
Humpback comeback: time to sharpen the harpoon?
The humpback and some other big whales are recovering from the threat of extinction.
But will the celebrations turn sour, for many people, if whaling nations use the news to justify sharpening their harpoons?
The International Union for Conservation of Nature put out a report today showing that the humpback was off the main endangered list, along with some other species including the southern right whale and the minke whale — it said that stocks were recovering, helped by a 1986 moratorium on all hunts. Many other types of whale, porpoise and dolphin were still in trouble.
But is the report bad news in disguise for whales?
Greenland, for instance, lobbied in vain June to add 10 humpbacks — a whale famed for its spectacular leaps (see the picture above) — to its annual quota of other species caught in an aboriginal hunt. Anti-whaling nations voted “No” at a meeting of the International Whaling Commission, arguing stocks were too small.
