So, from my point of view, the concept of global ethics is just one more of the many values, that Western missionaries and politicians of different kinds have been trying to impose on the rest of the world.

However, this does not mean that we have to defer from an international strategy towards for example sustainable use of our resources.

Sustainability is a concept which is recognized everywhere - we may use different wordings, but we all want to be able to utilize our resources, today and tomorrow as well, and we all accept, that the coming generations have a right to have access to these resources.

We have to find operational definitions of the variables, habitat included, that influence the populations of our living resources.

We have to share these definitions internationally. We then can meet around these definitions to make sure that our practical concepts and goals are mutually understandable and acceptable.

Having reached this mutual understanding countries can, through international treaties, commit themselves to pursue the accepted goals . We then have to give each other the trust and freedom to work out our own strategies to secure sustainability - in accordance with our own cultural values. Through such a strategy we will circumvent the airy concept of global ethics.

From the world of politics we know that values differs all over the world, our resources are different, our cultures and our history differs, as do our languages - last but not least our value systems do change all the time - so a search for global ethics will only be an eternal power play with no solutions or winners. In short, maybe a popular saying expresses it all in a simple way -think globally, act locally!

harp seals: about 33,500; hooded, bearded and common seals: about 31,500.

WHALES: Annual whale quotas by IWC (until 2002): West Greenland, East Greenland minke whales: 175, 12; fin whales: 19.