Say no to whaling today over at WDCS International

Whale photograph from The Daily Mail online

Below is one online email which was sent from the NSW North Coast in support of the international ban on whaling.
You too can have your say through the International Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society email page here.
Emails are needed before 20 June 2010. This is your last chance to influence the vote at the next International Whaling Commission meeting in Morocco.
Given Sunday's report in The Times concerning alleged vote buying by the Government of Japan, a grassroots counterbalance is needed.

President Obama
The Hon. Dª Elena Espinosa Mangana
The Right Honourable John Key
Ambassador Christian Maquieira

I call upon you to oppose whaling, to ensure the International Whaling Commission's ban on commercial whaling stays and to act to stop all commercial whaling and trade in whale products now!
I fully support the IWC moratorium on commercial whaling. This ban should not be reversed or weakened in any manner.
Additionally, I respectfully ask that any further slaughter of whales under the guise of 'scientific' research be stopped.
Living as I do in a small coastal community dependent in large part on the fishing industry and tourism, I am very aware that a healthy and biodiverse ocean returns the most rewards.
Both in terms of food and cultural/aesthetic values.
Whales are an integral part of this healthy diversity; and reducing their numbers through non-subsistence/commercial whale hunts is not just an assault on cetacean species, it is an assault upon future human generations.

Yours faithfully
[redacted for privacy reasons]
Australia

Excerpt from The Times 13 June 2010 article:

The revelations come as Japan seeks to break the 24-year moratorium on commercial whaling. An IWC meeting that will decide the fate of thousands of whales, including endangered species, begins this month in Morocco.
Japan denies buying the votes of IWC members. However, The Sunday Times filmed officials from pro-whaling governments admitting:
- They voted with the whalers because of the large amounts of aid from Japan. One said he was not sure if his country had any whales in its territorial waters. Others are landlocked.
— They receive cash payments in envelopes at IWC meetings from Japanese officials who pay their travel and hotel bills.
- One disclosed that call girls were offered when fisheries ministers and civil servants visited Japan for meetings.