Prior to this month’s International Whaling Commission meeting, our poll on the subject discovered that nearly three out of five British people believe there should be a total ban on whaling. Currently commercial whaling is banned in the UK, with limited whaling allowed for scientific purposes – a caveat to the ban almost a quarter of the public believes should remain.
In addition, nearly three quarters of people would support putting trade sanctions upon fish products from countries that continue to hunt whales.
- 59% of British people believe that there should be a total ban on whaling
- While 24% say that there should be a ban on commercial whaling for food, but limited whaling should be allowed for scientific purposes
- 71% of people would support putting trade sanctions upon fish products from countries that continue to hunt whales, such as Iceland, Norway and Japan, the latter of which hunts whales for scientific research but supports the re-introduction of regulated commercial whaling
The poll was taken before the International Whaling Commission meeting which took place this month in Jersey. The final day of the four day meeting saw a clash between the Buenos Aires group of 14 Latin American countries and the ‘pro-sustainable use’ bloc headed by Japan and Iceland. The Buenos Aires group attempted to force a vote on their bid to have the whole of the South Atlantic Ocean declared a whale sanctuary, while the pro-sustainable-use bloc declared this proposal unacceptable.
After nine hours of debate it was decided that the issue will go to a vote as the first item on the agenda for the next meeting, if a consensus cannot be found in the meantime.
