Whaling: don't trade the moratorium away

摘要

In their proposal to allocate 'whale shares' to both whalers and conservationists as an alternative to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) moratorium on commercial whaling, Christopher Costello and colleagues overlook several factors {Nature 481,139-140; 2012). Commercial whaling is in decline. In Japan, it is becoming less economically viable as consumer demand and whale-meat sales revenues fall - even with an increasing government subsidy, which this year is roughly ￥2.3 billion (US$30 million). Demand is also waning in Iceland and Norway.