Whales begin their annual migration out of the Antarctic killing fields into an evermore uncertain future

A 52-foot-long female Humpback whale and her newborn calf filmed in the South Pacific atoll of Moorea (Polynesia).
Image found at Big Movie Zone

As southern whales begin their annual trek out of the Japanese killing fields in the Antarctic to calve in warmer waters off Australia's far northern coastline and in the wider Pacific Ocean, they move into an evermore uncertain future.

Despite international concern about the fate of cetacean species, the Government of Japan and its uneconomic commercial whaling industry (conducting business under the guise of 'scientific research') continue to lobby vigorously for an end to the moratorium on whaling.

It is hard to see how the conference last weekend in Helsinki on Cetacean Rights: Fostering Moral and Legal Change will be an effective counterbalance to the votes and opinions Japan and other whaling nations will 'buy' at next month's International Whaling Commission four day annual meeting in Morocco.

Generally the Japanese media still see the debate as one centred on the good of national scientific research and how little whale meat is in actually eaten in the country. Ignoring any real discussion of environmental, biodiversity and species impacts from sustained killing in the Southern Ocean and the fact that whale meat appears to be entering the local pet food industry.

Wild Politics has promised to post Helsinki conference papers soon. Margi Prideaux deserves a round of applause for that undertaking.

Cetacean Rights Conference May 2010 Opening Address:
Fostering Moral and Legal Change Towards Cetacean Rights and presented conference paper abstracts