There is every reason to sympathise with the Makahs, and no reason to feel sorry for the US delegation. What goes around, comes around. The US is the only anti-whaling whaling nation in the Commission (with possible exception of Denmark). They thought that they could secure quotas for their own whalers while denying quotas for others. But the attempt to serve the interests of the animal romantics of their urban electorates and those of their aboriginal whalers at the same time has proven to be unsustainable.
No other delegation has had a cosier relationship with its whale protectionist NGO’s than the US delegation. No other delgation receives so many little pieces of paper from the back of the room during the meetings. No other delegation would let an NGO with no expertise whatsoever in the field use his position on the US delegation to tell the killing methods workshop that dead whales might still be alive - without anyone taking issue.
The US has actively taken part in the process of transforming the IWC into a anti-whaling body. Didn’t they realise that when there was nothing more the whale protectionists could do to hinder commercial whalers within the framework of the IWC, then the turn would come to the aboriginal subsistence ones.
The US has used the excuse of “public opinion” to take on “commercial” whalers. It could be their view to the US public at large is blocked by relatively small but efficiently organised and well-funded pressure groups crowding around inside the Beltway. Their policy has not exactly been educational. How are the public to understand that it is okay to kill “these magnificent and gentle creatures” as long as they are eaten by their killers and done away with using primitive techniques.
So what will the US do when the they get their request on behalf of the Makahs turned down next year as well? Their only option is to join Norway and Japan in that que that never moves forward. But the Makahs don’t have a problem. They have a treaty right.Pursuant to the US Constitution they have been granted the right to go out whaling. What can the US government do to stop them? What will the US Supreme Court say when the US government tells it that it has thrown the Makah's treaty rights away to a body that has been converted to whale rights. What will they say when they are told that these people have been waiting patiently for 70 years for the replenishment of a resource that was raped by the white whalers?
We are looking forward to the moment when the US delegation will have to explain the five greys in front of the infraction commitee. Maybe they will again employ David Wills to give the details of how they died?
US Tries to Trick Neighbour
The US government is one of four sponsors of a resolution calling on Canada to rejoin the IWC to ask for a quota for its Inuit whalers.
The US knows very well from its own experience that Canada will never be able to gather the three-quarters majority needed for such a request to be granted — whatever ammunition it has to support it.
Isn’t it enough that the US betrays its own indigenous people? Why should it force Canada to do the same?