The IWC is losing all credibility as alleged vote buying spreads ahead of this week's Morocco meeting

Female whale and calf

Whale song MP3 here and here

Once the United Nations and the International Whaling Commission (IWC) had almost universal credibility with regard to a global effort to reverse population decline amongst cetacean species.

As one of the original signatories to the INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION FOR THE REGULATION OF WHALING, Australia continued its support the IWC because of the moratorium on commercial whaling.
As part of a nation which had hunted whales it was obvious to many Australians that this unsustainable practice meant that we were in danger of losing part of our natural marine biodiversity and cultural heritage if whaling continued.
Australia formally banned whaling in 1979, ahead of the IWC 1982 vote to impose a general moratoriun by 1985.

However support for the IWC has turned to dismay at how easily this organisation has been subverted in the interests of whaling nations like Japan.

Any nation which allows its delegates to support the push to roll back the moratorium on commercial whaling this week will fully deserve the inevitable backlash, as ordinary people around the world (along with many ethical investors) quietly decide to boycott goods and services from those countries which are behaving like environmental vandals.

The Times on Sunday 20 June 2010 reported:

.....Anthony Liverpool will open the crucial International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in Morocco tomorrow which could vote to lift a 24-year ban on commercial whaling.

He has accepted free flights and the £4,000 cost of staying at a hotel with a private beach during the meeting. The hotel bills of five other countries' delegates are also being paid.

The payments will increase concern that Japan is bribing delegates to secure support for whaling and may be in breach of the IWC convention which says: "The expenses of each member of the commission ... shall be determined and paid by his own government." ......

On Friday Liverpool, the Antiguan IWC vice-chairman who will stand in as chairman at the meeting, said he did not know who was paying for his trip. "I am just aware of getting support through agencies," he said.

However, inquiries have shown that his bill at a hotel in Agadir is being paid by Japan Tours and Travel of Houston, a company said to be linked to Hideuki "Harry" Wakasa, who has previously been identified as the middleman who makes secret payments to the pro-whaling Caribbean countries.

Mr. Wakasa has been mentioned before according to BNET Australia in 2008:

Grenada's commissioner to the International Whaling Commission IWC from 1997 to 1999, Baptiste had been charged with pocketing more than US$75,000 sent by the Government of Japan as contributions to the Government of Grenada for its support of Japan at the International Whaling Commission. Investigators from Grenada visited Japan and the US gathering evidence on the alleged theft, which was said to have involved three payments in 1998 and 1999 through a U.S. corporation owned by a Japanese businessman, Hideuki "Harry" Wakasa.

This is the face of commercial whaling under the guise of scientific research as reported by Rushpr on 24 June 2009:

The data was made public at the International Whaling Commission meeting Monday.
Of 679 whales reported to have been killed during the 2008-2009 whale hunt in Antarctica, 304 were female. Four of the female whales were lactating, and 192 were pregnant at the time of death. The Japanese government's "Cruise Report" gives gruesome details on the fetuses killed. The four lactating females killed would each have had a dependent calf who would inevitably have starved to death.