The fact is that the same countries that prosecute such gerrymandering at the IWC would vehemently resist it in any international institution they valued. The IWC is of no economic interest to any of the anti-whaling block, so its dysfunctionality is also of no concern to them. The IWC is merely a platform from which they can make passionate political statements about their concern for the environment and divert attention from real environmental problems that affect their own citizens, like the poor sanitation in countries like Mexico, Chile and Argentina that kills people. The fact that the IWC is valued so little by pro and anti-whaling countries should be of concern to everyone meeting in Berlin.

In the United States the hypocrisy extends even further. It is at one with the anti-whalers in placing more and more restrictions on whaling by other nations, while at the same time exempting its military, larger than most IWC countries in terms of manpower and income, from regulations on marine mammals. At the same time it grants tax incentives to its whalers, demonstrating in one more way that the Inupiat hunts are commercial enterprises, while opposing quotas for a handful of coastal whalers in Japan unless their activities can be guaranteed as "non-commercial".