Lessons from Anchorage

I had a good day out at sea today. It was good to see some of Alaska's wilderness (including a few humpback whales), and not just Anchorage's Captain Cook Hotel where I spent this last week at the Whaling Commission meeting.

Back in the hotel, I listened to Richard Black's wrap up story of the IWC meeting on BBC Radio.

As usual Richard's coverage of the IWC meeting has been very thorough and balanced (including the various pieces he wrote prior to the meeting after his recent trip to Japan).

Richard Black's written wrap up piece on BBC online also addresses important issues that need to be taken seriously into account if we want the upcoming IWC special meeting on the future of the international whale conservation regime to be useful and avoid a repetition of past failed attempts to fix the whaling controversy.