Commercial whaling ships’ crewmen may not “log” all the whale meat they harvest so they can make more money. No one really knows how many whales are being slaughtered. Do you really expect the international commercial whaling industry to police itself?
Like any business, especially during lean financial times, the move by commercial whaling management may be to over-harvest, stretch the legal limits of commercial “kills” as well as erroneously count the numbers of legal “kills” and cut corners on any mandated governmental regulatory paperwork.
The International Whaling Commission (IWC) has no authority to enforce its own rules. Yet “loopholes” exist in the rules so thousands more whales can be slaughtered anyway. Even blue whale meat is being harvested which is supposedly protected and banned. Even the U.S. government seems willing to support decreasing whale protection to increase American whaling under the IWC’s legal “loopholes”.
SUPPLEMENTAL SOURCE: FRIENDS OF ANIMALS NEWS FALL 1996