"Such take would have not affected population of the minke whales at all. These 50 minke whales would have been the crucial to the lives of communities. The IWC has no respect for cultural or traditional value of the four small whaling-communities. Abashiri, Waduara, Ayukawa and Taiji are old whaling communities in Japan. They are highly respected in Japan as most of the senior villagers have contributed to Japan and its economy tremendously. However, when it comes to whales, powerful nations with their cultural ideas impose their rules on the Far East because they can get away with it easily. Lets all love the whales and hate the Japanese!", says Eugene Lapointe, former Secretary General of CITES and presently the Director of IWMC -World Conservation Trust.

"For long, IWC has been ruled by emotions and political correctness of powerful countries to whales. How could one compare the distress of human beings with the life of a few whales from an over-abundant species?" questioned Lapointe.

The reasons given by the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand to reject the appeal for human considerations, was that the take involved some "commercial elements". "Any human activity has commercial components, including the hunt authorized for the aboriginal hunting of whales. What is so different with the four small whaling-communities of Japan? Why are they treated with an ugly form of RACISM?