Brussels, 20/10/2006 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has added its voice to the chorus of protest following Iceland's decision to resume commercial whaling despite the international moratorium on whaling since 1986.
Noting that the EU is strongly committed to the conservation of whales and has fully implemented the International Whaling Commission (IWC)'s moratorium, EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas and EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg are calling on Iceland to review its decision.
In a joint press release published on Friday, the Commissioners comment: 'If it was simply a matter for the EU to decide, all commercial whaling would be abandoned once and for all. Whales are a fragile component in the biological equilibrium of marine fauna, already threatened by the unwarranted resumption of whaling, and by other human activities, mainly pollution.'
The EU only has observer status on the IWC but has resolved to make the best use of this and spare no effort in ensuring that whales are effectively protected worldwide, comments the European Commission. The only two countries currently fishing whales are Norway and Japan. Norway fishes whales for commercial ends and Japan, officially, for scientific ends. (an)