Japanese whaling

An Australian Custom ship has within the past few days captured emotive footage of whaling activities by Japanese hunters. Horrifically the photographs taken witness, for example, the piercing of an adult whale through its hump by the use of explosive harpoons, before the still-live and undoubtedly painracked whale is hoisted slowly through the air to bleed out the last of its life in fear and agony. Additional footage hints at a heartbreaking end to the peaceful lives of a mother and her calf.

Japan has used the International Whaling Convention's permissive measures relating to whaling in pursuit of 'scientific research' since the outset of the Convention's ratification. Since its creation in 1946 the International Whaling Commission has failed abysmally in its mandate to protect the stock of whales 'for future generations' - a mandate which in itself is based upon state self-interest, is entirely sterile and wholly theoretically imperfect.

The IWC has done little more than provide a permisive gloss to decades of slaughter of whales and stood by as to allow us to witness the systematic depletion of race of rightful inhabitants of our planet.

The IWC should be immediately and shamefully disbanded even were it not to be replaced by an equivalent, and hopefully more substantial organisation. If only to deny whaling nations such as Japan, Norway and Canada with the opportunity to legitimate their actions by reference to a fictitious provision that provides them with the outward conceit for the bloody murder of sentient creatures.