Opponents of Resumption of Whale Hunting State Their Case

• Malibuites Join Ranks with Residents from Other Areas Urging President to Change His Stance

BY SUZANNE GULDIMANN

A determined group of environmental activists, including a number of Malibu residents, braved gale-force winds on Sunday, gathering at the end of Santa Monica Pier to protest the Obama Administration’s plan to endorse the resumption of legalized whale hunting.

The rally, one of 16 held in California, was organized by longtime Malibuite and California Coastal Commissioner Sara Wan with the Western Alliance for Nature.

It attracted a wide range of supporters, including the Coastal Commission’s executive director Peter Douglas and Louis Psihoyos, director of “The Cove,” the 2010 Academy Award-winning documentary on the slaughter and exploitation of dolphins, who recently made the news for exposing a Santa Monica sushi restaurant that was serving endangered Sei whale.

For many of the 150 participants, the event had a depressing feeling of deja vu.

The 1986 ban on commercial whaling enacted by the International Whaling Commission after years of concerted global pressure, has been hailed as one of the 20th century’s greatest environmental victories.

The ban reduced the number of whales killed from 38,000 a year to fewer than 2000, according to IWC data. Environmental groups say that in the quarter century since the moratorium was enacted, several species of whale have begun to recover, despite a loophole that allows nations like Japan to continue commercial whaling under the guise of research, but that many species are still threatened with extinction.

When he was campaigning for president, Barack Obama stated, “As president, I will ensure that the U.S. provides leadership in enforcing international wildlife protection agreements, including strengthening the international moratorium on commercial whaling. Allowing Japan to continue commercial whaling is unacceptable.”

On April 15, the Obama Administration sent shockwaves through the environmental community when it announced that the U.S. would be leading an effort to broker an agreement that would allow the commercial hunting of whales for the first time since 1986. The IWC is scheduled to vote on the proposal in June.

Environmental groups say that the move would put all whale species at risk—including the California gray whale—and would open the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary to hunters.

“Whales are not fish and should not be harvested,” Wan said at the rally. “We need to send a strong message of solidarity.” Wan said that the Coastal Commission has passed a resolution opposing the plan to legalize whaling.

“There is no justification for the resumption of whaling,” Callie Hurd, speaking on behalf of California State Senator Fran Pavley and Assemblymember Julia Brownley, stated. “The IWC is dead wrong. We will not tolerate it. Our twenty-first century society does not need whaling. It’s barbaric and archaic. The hunts need to end once and for all,” she said.

Joel Reynolds, senior attorney and spokesperson for the Natural Resources Defense Council, called the 1986 ban “the single greatest conservation achievement of the twentieth century,” adding that “A large majority in California, America and the international community don’t want to lift the moratorium, they want to see it strengthened.”

“It’s no longer acceptable to hunt dolphins and whales, or to keep them in captivity” James William Gibson, CSU professor of sociology and author of  “A Reenchanted World,” said. “The game’s not over. We may take some losses but we are going to stop whaling.”

“This proposal is the height of insanity,” Heal the Bay’s Mark Gold told the protesters.

“Although the whales are voiceless, we are not,” Malibu Mayor Jefferson Wagner said, adding that he hopes the City of Malibu will join with numerous other California communities to pass a resolution opposing the plan to lift the moratorium. “Let’s whale on the whalers.”

“Whales carry the memory of the birth of the world, the memory of the ancestors,” Chumash leader Mati Waiya said. He blessed the gathering in a ceremony that included burning sage and blowing on a conch shell.

“The ocean is the blood of our world. We don’t need research for our own selfish gain,” Waiya said. “We need to be practitioners of nature. How can we trust a government that has turned into a business?”

More information on the effort to oppose resumption of commercial whaling is available online at www.nrdc.org, wanconservancy.org, or healthebay.org. The IWC will vote on the whaling proposal in June. Malibuites who wish to provide input on the issue can call the White House Public Comment Line at 202-456-1111.