Pro-whaling interests defeat new sanctuary for whales in South Atlantic
News
World Animal Protection laments the defeat of a proposed sanctuary for whales in the South Atlantic at the 66th meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC).
The South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary was proposed by the governments of Argentina, Brazil, Gabon, South Africa and Uruguay. Sadly, the three quarter majority of votes required for a new sanctuary to be agreed wasn’t achieved.
Ingrid Giskes, Head of the Sea Change campaign at World Animal Protection said:
“Today, is a sad day for whales, as countries who support commercial whaling voted against the South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary.
"Monaco has called the repeat failure to adopt this sanctuary proposal “scandalous” and World Animal Protection agrees.
“The proposal to establish the South Atlantic Sanctuary was first put forward to the IWC in the late 1990s. The continued failure to protect whales with a sanctuary is likely to have dire consequences on the whaling population, but we will continue to fight for this to change.”
The Sanctuary would have prohibited commercial whaling within its waters and involved coordinated work to address the many other threats whales face in today’s oceans such as entanglements in fishing gear, collision with ships and noise pollution