Values

This funky photo shows a group of people this week at the meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), who were all present at the whaling commission 26 years ago when the moratorium on commercial whaling was adopted. From left to right: Paul Spong [the orca specialist who was the first person in 1974 to tell the then emerging Greenpeace tribe that they should go after the killing of whales], Jim Barnes [life-long Antarctica conservation advocate], Allan Thornton [Founder of the Environmental Investigation Agency], Craig Van Note [Washington DC environmental lobbyist], me - Rémi, Mike Donoghue [Scientific Adviser to the Government of New Zealand], Patty Forkan of the Humane Society, John Frizell from Greenpeace, and Leslie Budby who now co-ordinates the Pew Whale Conservation Project.

Some of us have been involved in the whaling issue on and off [for example, I came back to the IWC two years ago at the request of Pew after a 20 year absence from it]; others like Patty and John have at all or most IWC meetings for the last 30 years, I think.

I recommend Richard Black's "The Value of protecting whales" story from yesterday. It is funny and profound at the same time.

After it rejected yesterday Greenland's demand for humpback whales, the IWC meeting will finish this morning. I'll try to wrap up before I go home.