Malibu Environmentalists Are Not Happy with White House’s About-Face on Whale Protection

• Critics Say National Groups Are ‘Selling Ou’t in Response to Pressure

BY ANNE SOBLE

The 2010 annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission—its 62nd—in Agadir, Morocco last month is now history. Some local environmental activists express concern that history will not treat the session kindly.

Founded in 1946, the IWC reviews the condition of the world’s whale population and the need for conservation measures. The commission has used various means of regulating commercial whaling, including a moratorium, establishment of open and closed seasons, open and closed areas, protection of certain species, size limits per species, and limits on the catch in any one season.

The 2010 commission ended without reaching a consensus resolution of the main differences with regard to commercial whaling. Instead, it agreed to “a pause in its work on this topic to allow time for reflection until the 2011 annual meeting.”

Of greatest concern to activists organized locally by Sara Wan, a longtime Malibuite and member of the California Coastal Commission, is the decision by President Barack Obama to reverse his campaign stance that he wanted to see an end to commercial whaling.

Wan told the Malibu Surfside News that the United States IWC commissioner, Monica Medina, the Commerce Department’s principal deputy undersecretary for oceans and atmosphere, “brokered a deal that allows Japan and Greenland even greater whale takings” over the protest of European, South American and Australian commissioners.

Wan is particularly harsh in her condemnation of organizations, such as Greenpeace, which she said, “In the height of hypocrisy,” climbed aboard the U.S. bandwagon, an action not without its share of scandal regarding Japanese funding and lobbying of groups.

Especially disturbing, Wan said, is that “the Administration has done a good job of spinning its actions as saving the whales.” She lamented, “It’s simply not true.”

Critics of what transpired at the IWC session also say the mainstream media ignores the whaling issue and allows the White House to stifle opposition.

Wan said the IWC respite “must be a time for organizing a national effort to end whaling once and for all.” If not, the scientific and ethical issues will continue to be ignored, and the seas will run red with the blood of whales.