News:Iceland may stop commercial whaling completely due to economic pressures and competition from Japan which also hunts whales and subsidises its whale products.
Facts:
- Iceland alongside Norway and Japan has frequently withdrawn from the International Whaling Commission’s 1986 worldwide moratorium which had indefinitely paused commercial whaling.
International Whaling Commission:
- It is an Intergovernmental Organisation established in 1946 under the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling.
- Aim:To provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry.
- Headquarters: Cambridge, England.
- India: It is a member of the commission.
- In 1986, the commission adopted a moratorium on commercial whaling and the moratorium continues till date.
- However,it allows non-zero whaling quotas for aboriginal subsistence and also member nations may issue ‘Scientific Permits’ to their citizens.
