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The Need for Whales to Survive

by Graham Clarke, Whales in Danger

Beyond a Reasonable Excuse

I think that as people...we have done an exorbitant amount of damage to other life forms...and we have acted far in excess of the simple situation of "survival of the fittest". We deem ourselves as superior, self-righteous beings far above everything else, and we have taken it upon ourselves to use very cowardly and unfair advantages to kill and destroy everything around us if it proves to produce in anyway, shape or form, a profit.

Since we have taken it upon ourselves to not only "subdue" the earth, but to control, manipulate, and wreak havoc, I think that it is our responsibility then to clean up after our ignorant decisions and do something to protect these creatures. Not from themselves, but from us.

The Unique Status of Whales

No other living resource on earth is under the same kind of multi-national rule as whales are. Since the signing of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling in 1946, it has been determined and recognized that whales are an international resource, not a national one.

They come under the global jurisdiction of the Commission, and they are not subject to any individual country's arbitrary, unilateral use. Decisions regarding the management and utilisation of whale resources must be decided by the will of the world's people, as represented in the IWC, whose member nations represent the overwhelming majority of humankind today. Unlike land animals, whales dwell and migrate in open seas as part of the "common heritage" of all humankind.



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