Sorrento, Italy, 21 July 2004: IWMC, the leading pro-sustainable use conservation group, welcomed today's decision by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to reject new whale sanctuaries, arguing that the protection of whales depends on the establishment of an overall management system, not political grandstanding.

Proposals for new sanctuaries were presented by Australia/ New Zealand and Brazil/ Argentina despite the fact that the IWC's Southern Ocean Sanctuary was heavily criticized last week by external experts hired to review its impact over the last ten years. Both proposals failed to receive the necessary three-quarters support from IWC member states.

The IWC was established "to provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry." However, it still does not have in place a management system that regulates whale harvests.

Eugene Lapointe, President of IWMC, said: "The most important conservation measure the IWC can introduce for the future of whales is a management system that places internationally agreed limits and procedures on harvests. It is good to see that the IWC has not succumbed to the will of the animal rights lobby and the indulgence of political opportunists by creating sanctuaries that have no scientific merit and would have no impact at all on whale stocks."

The Convention that established the IWC requires all management decisions to be based on science. Neither proposal today was endorsed by the IWC's Scientific Committee.

Because the existing IWC sanctuaries (Indian Ocean Sanctuary and Southern Ocean Sanctuary) were established without any scientific justification and were based on political judgments (against a background of pressure from animal rights groups), whaling nations filed "objections" and are not bound by them. In reality the existing sanctuaries only prohibit hunting by non-whaling countries and have come to symbolize the dysfunctionality of the IWC.

Mr. Lapointe said: "By trying to cover all whales when only a very few species are actually endangered, the sanctuaries are a tool not of conservation for endangered species but of total protection for abundant ones. When international organizations prohibit all hunting in this way, it undermines efforts to protect other species that are genuinely threatened."

Last week, the IWC's Scientific Committee was told by experts that the Southern Ocean Sanctuary was a failure. It had no clear objectives, no performance measures, little rationale behind its boundary selection and was not ecologically justified.

For further information, contact Eugène Lapointe
Florida: +1(727) 734-4949 or email: iwmc@iwmc.org