The International Whaling Regime
In his article, “Whale Mining, Whale Saving,” Sidney Holt states, “saving the whales is for millions of people a crucial test of their political ability to halt environmental destruction”(Holt 1985). In a world where environmental issues are often so vast that solving them seems impossible, it is rare to encounter a regime which successfully addresses these problems. If we judge a regime’s effectiveness by its ability to change the behavior of its members and possibly even encourage others to join, then the whaling regime was in fact quite effective. The significant decrease in commercial whaling brought about by the International Whaling Commission (IWC)’s 1982 moratorium is proof in itself of the whaling regime’s effectiveness. That being said, the history of the regime has not been without imperfections, and these shortcomings will continue to shape the successes and failures of the whaling regime in the future.
While the peak of whaling in recorded history occurred in the 1930s where close to 55,000 whales were caught each year, whaling has been practiced by people for centuries and was unregulated for most of that time period (Andresen 2000). However, in 1946, the Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (composed of 15 nations including the U.S.) met and created the International Whaling Commission in order to address the problem of declining whale stocks. An increase in commercial whaling as well as introduction of “factory ships” which allowed whalers to travel far out to sea, catch whales (pelagic fishing), and process them on the boat without going back to shore had begun to put a strain on population numbers of certain whale species. (Fletcher 2001). Thus, the IWC was primarily c...
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Aron, William, W. Burke, M. Freeman. 2000. “The Whaling Issue.” Marine Policy. 24: 179-191.
Fletcher, Kristen M. “The International Whaling Regime and U.S. Foreign Policy.” In The Environment, International Relations, and U.S. Foreign Policy. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2001.
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Holt, Sidney J.. 2003. “Is the IWC Finished as an Instrument for the Conservation of Whales?” Marine Pollution Bulletin 46: 924-926.
Holt, Sidney J.. 2000. “The Whaling Controversy.” Fisheries Research 54: 145-151.
Holt, Sidney J.. 1985. “Whale Mining, Whale Saving.” Marine Policy 4: 192-214.
O’Connell, Kate. July 2002. “The 2002 IWC Annual Meeting.” Whales Alive! 11(3).
The most effective piece of this documentary, however, was neither the structure of the film nor the specific questions that one is forced to answer regarding the ethical treatment of these killer whales, but the overall questions of whether or not these corporations should be allowed to continue their cycle of abuse toward the animals and whether or not we, as patrons, should encourage their behavior by giving them a monetary profit every day, every month, and every year. Ignorance is forgivable, but with the knowledge given in this documentary: the final two questions raised should be able to answer themselves.
Kelly, R. 2008. It is only made things worse: A critique of Electoral System in Britain. The political quarterly 79(2):260-261.
Grofman, B. & Lijphart, A. 2002. The evolution of electoral and party systems in the Nordic countries. USA: Agathon Press.
The authors describe some of the advantages of a MMP system: “Mixed electoral systems provide fairly proportional outcomes, maintain the geographic link between constituents and members, provide for greater choice, and allow the opportunity for smaller parties to represented in Parliament” (p. 11). This system works better than the current FPTP or plurality system, because it allows citizen’s a second opportunity to have a voice. This is important because it would allow our minority groups to have a greater political influence. As mentioned earlier, in the current system all votes for candidates who lost, were insignificant to the election outcome. The authors explain: “Only those votes that go to the eventual winner count towards electing a representative, which may discourage people from voting or promote disaffection with the system” (p. 3). Alternatively, the MMP system allows citizen’s a second opportunity to elect party members in order to proportionally represent the popular
Karp, Jeffrey A., and Susan A. Banducci. " Political Efficacy and Participation in Twenty-Seven Democracies: How Electoral Systems Shape Political Behaviour." British Journal of Political Science 38 (2008): 311-334. Cambridge Journals. Web. 16 Mar. 2012.
The Makah people indigenous to the Pacific Northwest have a very close and long standing cultural bond to the ocean. This cultural bond is displayed in various forms such as their artwork, history, and lore. One key aspect of their culture has come scrutiny within the past twenty years—whaling. Since 1855, the Makah people have legally held the right to whale in designated waters around their reservation. In the 1920’s, the Makah decided to halt whaling due to a dwindling population of the whales. In 1986, the International Whaling Commission enacted a global moratorium on commercial whaling with two exceptions being scientific research and aboriginal subsistence. In the mid 1990’s the Makah people decided to resume their whaling practices with rising whale populations and successfully killed their first whale in roughly 70 years in 1999. This has led to much backlash from domestic governmental agencies and NGOs alike. Thus the problem lies in the question as to whether the Makah people should legally be allowed to whale with the answer being a resounding no. There many issues domestic and international issues with the continuation of the Makah people whaling with the most important being: other previously whaling states seeing the United States ‘pardon’ cultural whaling and failing to see the importance of the global whaling moratorium in effect, the possible discovery of a small population of rare resident whales in the area, and the immorality of slaughtering a highly sentient being.
Karp, J. A. (2006). Political knowledge about electoral rules: Comparing mixed member proportional systems in Germany and New Zealand. Electoral Studies, 25(4), 714-730.
Pilon, Dennis. “Understanding Electoral Systems.” In Elections, Edited by Heather MacIvor. 35-54 Toronto: Emond Montgomery Publications, 2010.
Commercial whaling is a serious world issue that has always been difficult for those who are in support and those who are against it. Each group defends their side with convincing arguments. Morally, whaling is wrong, but do the reasons for whaling outweigh the reasons to cease the primitive hunts? By studying the effects of whaling,realizing how culture has changed over time, and taking note of the money that would be saved, it can clearly be seen that there is no longer a current need for whaling to continue. Efforts have been made to try to stop whaling, but with no help from any authoritative figure,nothing has been done to regulate the whaling. The famous sea shepherd, known for its strikes against whaling, can even be seen on the popular television show, Whale Wars. The continuation of whaling can only have negative effects on everyone. All practices of whaling should cease.
A bitcoin is a digital document encoding a solution to one of a class of computational problems. The problems are hard to solve but the solutions once obtained are easy to verify. The identity of the Bitcoin user solving a problem is encoded in the problem itself so different users will never end up creating the same coin. Thus, the verification becomes easy and the rate of creation of new bitcoins can be kept in check. To transfer a bitcoin, its current owner appends a digitally-signed message of the form “I transfer t...
The study of psychology began as a theoretical subject a branch of ancient philosophy, and later as a part of biological sciences and physiology. However, over the years, it has grown into a rigorous science and a separate discipline, with its own sets of guidance and experimental techniques. This paper aims to study the various stages that the science of psychology passed through to reach its contemporary status, and their effects on its development. It begins with an overview of the historical and philosophical basis of psychology, discusses the development of the various schools of thought, and highlights their effects on contemporary personal and professional decision-making.
The International Whale Protection Organization (IWPO) was organized against the act of whaling and is a non-profit organization. This organization is for supporters like the citizens of Iceland who are concerned with the potential dangers this business brings to the whale population. Another organization that has similar goals as the IWPO is The Internal Whaling Commission (IWC) whose mission it to protect the whales of the sea, consisting of 88 members all around the world. This organization to this day is to make sure the whales are safe, not only from whaling, but from any environmental concern there may be. Although there are many organizations to help the whales, a factor to be considered is that whaling has done well for the economy for the countries that pursued this commercial industry. Whaling has produced many jobs for citizens in these countries, which is not only important to those individuals, it is also important to the economy. Whale’s and their meat are sold at very high profit margins, which results in a great economic
The numbers of marine mammals present in waters under the jurisdiction of the United States has fluctuated over the past century. Declines have been credited to various causes, which are a mix of anthropogenic and natural processes. One major cause of marine mammal decline is whaling. Even though this practice has been prohibited, the effects of commercial whaling in the United States can still be seen today. The main whale species affected included North Pacific right whales (Eubalaena japonica), bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus), humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae), blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus), and gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus). Sei whales (Balaenoptera borealis) and sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) were exploited in an increased fashion after World War II (Springer et al., 2003). Whaling did not only affect whale populations, but it also affects populations of seals, sea lions, and sea otters. This is hypothesized to be the result of top-down forces from whaling, forcing great whales to shift their food sources to these smaller marine mammals. During the Second World War, whaling of great whales was at its peak. These whales were used for oils for lubricants, food, and other needs of the people of the United States. However, this heavy use of great whale stocks forced killer whales (Orcinus orca) to begin feeding on smaller marine mammals, such as seals, sea lions, and sea otters (Trites et al., 2006). It is also thought that declines in these smaller marine mammals is due to a decline in nutritional limits in their habitats, competition with fisheries, as well as changing climates.
"Clinical Psychology- A Short History." Helping Psychology. 26 Jan. 2009. Web. 6 Mar. 2011. .
“Voting is part of democracy to protect the best interests of the people no matter what is their race, gender, political opinion or religion” (United Nation, 2005). The word democracy came from the Greek words “demos” which means people, and “craters” which means provided or rules. (Museum of Australian dictionary, 2012) Therefore, democracy is about rule and people. Democracy is a system of governance which allows every citizen to get an equal chance to speak and join in political society. This essay will begin by examining three different voting systems and how Australia’s electoral system can be improved to make it more democratic. I recommend that our electoral system should be changed to a proportional system because this system does not produce wasted votes as much as other systems. Wasted votes are votes which went for an elected candidate. If the rate of wasted votes is high, public opinion becomes less likely to be reflected in a political system. Therefore if we want to have a more democratic society, we need a system which does not produce many wasted votes. I chose Canada and NZ to compare with Australia because they have similar GDP’s and cultural values. They are also