Whaling to Japan is like Deer and Elk hunting here in the USA, multipled by a factor of 5. Imagine telling American Hunters that Elk in Colorado are endangered and there will be no more hunting,etc, transpose that scenario here, and you will appreciate the complexities involved. That is why the International Commission has made little or no progress with Japan, they don't have the communicative cross cultural expertise to solve the problem.
I believe whales are a finaite resource that need cultivation. The Japanese are experts at cultivating finite resources, it is one of the many reasons their ancient culture has managed to survive for two thousand years. That is what needs to be accessed.
(Tell the whaling commission they can hire me as a consultant, LOL.)
The greenies have indeed met their match, and if they push it further, blood will flow on both sides of this equation, or maybe on three sides if you include the whales.
THe whaling commission thinks it can make progress by just involving the Japanese Government and the Marine Companies in Japan that do the whaling. The demand for whale meet drives the dynamic, which is created by the many high gear commercial fish markets in Japan, that conduct daily auctions for commercial wholesale consumers. Thats where the effort and diplomacy needs to be focused in the Japanese market structure for whale meat and the other products, such as bone, oil, etc. Nothing from a whale goes to waste with the Japanese.
So how do we approach it. Japans unique position in whaling, and its cultural connections to it need to be acknowledged. That of Iceland and other Scandanavian countries does also. They need to be required somehow to manage and cultivate the rsource instead of fighting international consensus, which they can always succeed in, because of a paucity of the military type of enforcement required to preserve the resource.That type of enforcement will never evolve in the whaling industry.Thats a fact that needs to be faced. The expertise of those nations who d still whale needs to be accessed co-operatively and diplomatically.
Ping
Keep in mind, though, that:
1) American hunters limit their deer and elk hunting to undisputed US sovereign territory, and
2) deer and elk being land-based creatures, the fate of the their populations here has no bearing on their fate anywhere else other than Canada (which as far as I know has never raised any objections to US hunters’ deer and elk hunting).
The IWC has been around since 1946, 12 years before I was born. The discussions of mariners across the globe who were appalled at Japan -and- Russia's blatant disregard for the decimation of any marine species - whether in their waters or anyone elses that didn't have very large projectiles at the ready to deter them is legendary.
Japan has decimated it's stocks long ago, or there wouldn't be this thread. They have no respect for the sea, and will wipe out every species from whales to herring, unless they are stopped.
This IS their culture. They have destroyed their fishery through gluttony, and will destroy every fishery across the globe as long as there is a dollar to be made.
Is there anyone here who hasn't watched videos of Japanese, thousands of miles farther from home than they could of traveled just 100 very short (sea) years ago, slicing off the fins of sharks - enough to fill the holds of boats meant to catch whole fish, and leaving the fin less sharks to flounder and die at a rate that would certainley change to the detrimant an ecosystem that's taken thousands - or millions, take your pick..of years to come to this stage of their "destiny".
It is unfortunate that, like the UN, the IWF seems to exist in a testicle free zone, or else they'd point out that the Japanese "culture" involved a tiny fraction of the consumers it now has, along with a whaler range of essentially their own coastal waters.
And, yes, Europeans and American settlers also adopted the culture of whaling, driving them to near extinction.
We realized it was a bad idea. The Japanese don't give a flying whaleburger, and are profiting off of our conscience.
I have no doubt, that if there were no deterrents, they would net every spawning salmon, kill every Elk, Deer, Moose, Bear and raccoon, just to eat their eggs.
Here in the Puget Sound in Washington state, it is way, way, way to common to see hundreds of salmon lying on beaches, private and public, whole except for the eggs which are on their way to Japan.
Our overwhelmingly (D)state legislature's response to this abridgment of sovereign nation conservationism?
Cash the tribe's campaign donations and shut down fisheries to everyone else.
I suspect the IWF was weaned on the same stale dated can of spinach