THE hunt is on again. Not yet for whales, but for control of the organisation that will decide whether to resume the commercial killing of the largest animals on Earth.
Last week, by the slenderest of margins, the 70-nation International Whaling Commission (IWC) voted for a declaration that renounces past conservationist policies, strongly criticises environmental groups, and declares the organisation’s 20-year-old moratorium on commercial whaling to be moribund. A resumption of commercial whaling itself would require the votes of three-quarters of IWC members, but the politically charged declaration, and fading memories of 20th-century slaughter, mean it may not be many…
