A CONSERVATION MINUS - The new "Eat Whales" campaign by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, (or PETA), is at once a complex mix of entertainment and a source of amazement at the ignorance of their campaign managers. For once, they have advocated the right course of action, but without knowing or caring why.

PETA advocates the use of whales for food, their rationale being that the taking of a few lives is preferable to the taking of "a billion lives" of chickens, cattle and pigs for the same amount of meat product. Their ad of course, does not begin to convey the conservation advantages of sustainable whaling, because their people (a.) don't care about conservation at all and (b.) know nothing about the environmental rationale behind the use of whales as a protein supplement in the global economy.

The apparent hope of the PETA campaign wizards was that it would seem idiotic to eat whales (supposedly endangered) rather than domestic stock, just to save lives. Ironically, while it is right to eat whales, they have given all the wrong reasons. If PETA was not estranged from their fellow anti-use NGOs before, they surely are now. It's always refreshing to see a division in the ranks.

A CONSERVATION PLUS - A meeting on the health of the world's fisheries was held recently in Reykjavik, Iceland. The Reykjavik Conference on Responsible Fisheries in the Marine Ecosystem was jointly sponsored by the FAO and the government of Iceland. The conference attracted some 400 delegates from 70 countries, and focused attention on holistic management practices that would concentrate on all species, not just one, and then another, as stocks fluctuated.

Topics addressed included discussion of ways to better sustain and preserve the health of the world's fisheries, and how to diminish the amount of harmful run-off into the marine environment, from agricultural practices. New fishing strategies that would be less harmful to the marine environment, and new political interventions in the harvest and importing process, are expected to play a significant role in the years to come. The conference plenary issued a resolution at the end of the session. This statement, the Reykjavik Declaration on Responsible Fisheries in the Marine Ecosystem, is being forwarded to the UN in order that it be considered at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, in Johannesburg, South Africa, in September of 2002.

A CONSERVATION PLUS - Prior to the Iceland conference, the annual meeting of the International Coalition of Fisheries Associations (ICFA) was held in late July in Tokyo. Seventeen nations are members of ICFA, which issued a declaration regarding international tuna management.

ICFA members seek to eliminate Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported fishing through action by which they will close their markets to Flag of Convenience Vessels that operate outside the tuna conservation agreements. ICFA sent a letter both to the WTO and to China, on this matter; the organization called on the WTO to support the use of multi-laterally agreed trade measures to combat the IUU fishing, and urged China to withdraw its objection to the ICCAT recommendation adopted in 2000, to limit its tuna longline fishing vessels in the Atlantic, and to limit its Bigeye Tuna harvest.

ICFA's main concern is the long term conservation of tuna stocks wherever they are fished, and the organization calls on the FAO to assume leadership in this and a number of other conservation matters. ICFA Chairman Hiroya Sano called on the fishing industry to set its own agenda internationally for a strong policy platform, rather than being reactive in the face of protectionist NGOs and other non-scientific forces.

IWMC applauds both ICFA and the organizers of the Reykjavik Conference, for their efforts to keep fisheries conservation on a high level of scientific investigation and discussion.

We note that politics continues to play a somewhat negative role in these matters, and encourage all nations to shape their policy decisions more decisively through science and fair harvest principles in the future.