Key anti-whaling actions included the adoption of a resolution condemning Japanese whaling, and a report by the IWC Scientific Committee that hotly criticized Japan’s so-called “scientific” whaling program.
 
IFAW Global Whale Program Manager Patrick Ramage, said from the meeting: “We are encouraged by the strengthened conservation majority at this year’s IWC meeting.

Dr.

Despite a 1986 global moratorium on commercial whaling, Japan currently hunts more than 1,200 whales a year for what it calls “scientific” whaling, in abuse of an IWC loophole that allows for the lethal research of whales. Whales hunted by Japan as part of its whaling program are processed and sold commercially within Japan. This year the nation has added 50 humpback whales to its self-allocated quota.
 
“The IWC is at a crucial crossroads,” said Patrick Ramage, head of IFAW’s Global Whale Campaign.

“World Turtle Day gives us the opportunity to reinforce and highlight our commitment towards these amazing animals,” said Anand Ramanathan of IFAW. “Sea turtles can take many years to reach an age when they can mate, this very slow maturation process makes rescuing every single one we can all the more important.”
 
Eroding beaches around the world pose serious threats to sea turtles that return to breed in their sands. Both adults and hatchlings suffer from loss of habitat, poaching, nest predation and disorientation by artificial light.

Shark fishing is mainly carried out with drift gill nets measuring close to two kilometers long, as well as long lines of up to 70 kilometers in length with thousands of hooks. The drift gill nets have been called walls of death because they catch all marine organisms.

These nets are the main threat to cetaceans. Most of the captures around the world occur in gill and drift nets, in the case of whales, dolphins and porpoises (84% of captures), for seals and sea lions (98% of catches)[1].