Dear Friend,

June 15, 2007

The Hague, Netherlands: Pro-whaling countries have failed in another attempt to reopen international trade in whale products.

The regulatory body responsible for international trade in endangered species, CITES, today concluded decisions on whales at its biennial meeting, rejecting once more attempts to lift restrictions on international commercial trade in whale products.

Having failed to gain approval for their proposals, Japan, Iceland and their pro-whaling allies today tried to block attempts to further protect whales from their relentless efforts to resume international trade.

Following much heated debate, CITES adopted a decision, put forward by Australia, that no reviews of whale species should take place as long as the International Whaling Commission’s ban on commercial whaling continues. This means that no whales will be put into the CITES periodic review process. The long procedural battle over this today illustrated the strong feelings on both sides of the debate, which threatened to bring the meeting to a standstill.

WDCS’ Director of Science, Mark Simmonds, present at the meeting, said “All attempts by pro-whaling nations to legalise commercial whaling and reopen international trade in whale products over the past few weeks have failed. The international community has once again clearly rejected the dangerous attempts to exploit whales commercially.”

Japan and Iceland failed to gain support for their proposals for CITES to review the biological and trade status of whale species, hoping that following this review, CITES would recommend that the protection currently afforded to some whale species should be relaxed.

WDCS Germany, CEO, Niki Entrup said “Pro-whaling countries have tried every trick in the book to try to get this strong decision by CITES overturned, but they have failed resoundingly. The message from the international community in favour of the protection of whales couldn’t be more clear.”

Meanwhile, the Icelandic whaling industry continues to provoke international criticism, with its current commercial whale hunt targeting minke and fin whales. Iceland’s Marine Research Institute has recently asked the Icelandic Government for a dramatically increased commercial whaling quota of 200 fin whales and 400 minke whales in 2008.

You can read the press releases from CITES 2007 by visiting our website at http://whales.org.