“Groups like the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) deliberately manipulate and often fabricate data to influence policy decisions,” said Lapointe.  These practices were recently documented by the Canadian Court and British Advertising Standards Authority who condemned IFAW for using false and misleading video footage in campaigns against Canadian sealers and British fox hunters.  “Groups like IFAW prey the public’s lack of knowledge,” said Lapointe. 

A 1998 survey* showed 73% of US adults admitted knowing “little” or “nothing” about whales, with 75% who held “no opinion” or “objected to ”harvesting abundant species such as the minke whale (a million worldwide) said their views were based on “not enough information.”  Similar results were found in France, the United Kingdom and Australia.  *(“Knowledge of Whales and Whaling…” Response Management, Harrisonburg VA, April 1998) 

All whaling today is for meat to feed people.  The days of unregulated and environmentally unsound whaling for industrial oil are gone.  Yet groups who oppose cultural diversity try to link whaling cultures and nations to this environmentally damaging practice. 

“Groups like IFAW intentionally confuse the public by labeling the sustainable harvest of cetaceans for food as ‘commercial whaling.’  Whaling for meat is not whaling for oil,” said Lapointe.  “IFAW wants the public to believe it is wrong for a Pacific Northwest Coastal Nation trades a portion of its catch to in-land people for venison or salmon or for Norwegians to trade blubber, which their people do not eat, to Japanese or others who do.  Neither is wrong.” 

“Nit-picking over word usage benefits no one, not the whales, not whaling cultures, not IWC.  Cultures and nations that use cetaceans and other marine mammals to feed their people await IWC action.  If none comes, they will feed their people whether IFAW, IWC, or anyone else objects or not,” said Lapointe. 

“The public, the press, and IWC must not be misled by faulty information.  Sound decisions are made based on sound data, not manipulated public opinion surveys.  Without sound regulatory policies, IWC will collapse and whales and whaling cultures will suffer,” said Lapointe. 

IWMC-World Conservation Trust is a worldwide organization dedicated to the conservation of the world’s resources through sustainable practices, to the preservation of cultural diversity, and to the preservation of the sovereign rights of all nations for the benefit of the planet.  Eugene Lapointe served as Secretary-General of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) from 1982-1990. �