Press release n° 1 – Opening

66th International Whaling Commission
Portoroz – Slovenia
24-28 October 2016

Opening

On the table of the 88 Member States, no whale meat, but several important topics for their future, the future of the order Cetacea and of the Commission itself.

Sanctuary
Sanctuaries are geographically defined areas in the world ocean where commercial whaling is prohibited and will remain even if the commercial whaling suspension entered into force in 1986 was eventually to be lifted. The Indian Ocean sanctuary was established in 1979 on a proposal of the Seychelles. The Southern Ocean (Antarctic) sanctuary was adopted in 1994. However, given the current state of the IWC founding text , some Member-States may lead scientific whaling with lethal methods in contradiction with the ethics and purpose of the sanctuary.

66th IWC – International Whaling Commission
Portoroz – Slovenia
24-28 October 2016

Ominous :

• October 27, 2016. Daly, California. The male blue whale with skull fractures runs aground at the foot of the cliffs. 65 ft in length.

On the Trail – Special Edition. 66th IWC

For 3 years, the NGO Robin des Bois (Robin Hood) has been publishing in French and in English the quarterly bulletin “On the Trail” on the poaching and smuggling of animal species threatened with extinction. Information come from a thousand sources, institutions, local medias and NGOs on the spot throughout the world. Each event is analyzed, related with a maximum of practical details and further developments are traced through time.

Sperm whale is the great forgotten one in the work of the IWC at Portoroz. Yet, in Europe the most prestigious, the most mysterious, the most performing, the most literary and the most coveted among cetaceans is on the front line of the casualties, of those waste-suffocated and those disorientated by vibrations and noises from offshore activities, maritime traffic and submarine explosions of ammunition.

Only in French.

Only in French.