Press Releases

7 April 1999 - Global Whaling Cultures Unite to Survive

Participants from twenty-one nations including government officials, legal experts and representatives of whaling societies met in Reykjavik, Iceland March 27-30 for the second General Assembly of the World Council of Whalers (WCW), an international organization geared to support sustainable whaling.

The assembly heard a welcoming address from Iceland's Foreign Minister, Hon. Halldor Asgrimsson and a video-taped message from United States Congressman Richard Pombo (R-CA). Both stressed the importance of applying sustainable management techniques to marine resources, preserving cultural identities and bringing the true story of whales and whalers to the public.

The Fisheries Minister of the Faroe Islands, Hon. Jorgen Niclasen, and the chairman of the North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission, Mr. Arnor Halldorsson, spoke of the importance of rational whale management for the protection of marine biodiversity and the future of the fishing industry.

Information was shared on whaling and whale use in Canada, four Caribbean nations, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, the Philippines, Russia and Tonga. Expert panels discussed whaling management, trade issues, and communication.

Five resolutions adopted by consensus targeted the desperate plight of Russian Chukotkan whaling communities, diet-related health problems in Tonga, the Eastern Canadian Arctic bowhead hunt, Iceland's March 1999 parliamentary resolution to resume whaling, and trade problems related to the US Marine Mammal Protection Act.

The World Council of Whalers, dedicated to the sustainable use of marine wildlife and the empowerment of whaling cultures and nations, was created in February 1997 to provide an international forum for cooperation and the exchange of information among the world's whaling peoples and to serve as the voice of whaling cultures before domestic and international policy-making bodies.

"With the world's whale populations steadily increasing, the world's endangered whaling cultures will survive," stated Chief Tom Mexsis Happynook, Chairman of the World Council of Whalers, at the close of the General Assembly

"Foremost among the world's issues for the coming millennium is the ability to feed a growing human population while maintaining bio-diversity on Planet Earth," Happynook said. "We must feed our people and preserve our cultures within the framework of sustainable use of nature's resources. Whaling is an important part of both."