The International Whaling Regime Essay -- Argumentative Persuasive Ess

The International Whaling Regime In his article, â€Å"Whale Mining, Whale Saving,† Sidney Holt states, â€Å"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 â€Å"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... ... Aron, William, W. Burke, M. Freeman. 2000. â€Å"The Whaling Issue.† Marine Policy. 24: 179-191. Fletcher, Kristen M. â€Å"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. Greenpeace: Whaling. 2000. http://whales.greenpeace.org/whaling. Accessed 5/9/04. Institute of Cetacean Research. 2002. http://www.icrwhale.org/eng-index.htm. Accessed 5/9/04. Holt, Sidney J.. 2003. â€Å"Is the IWC Finished as an Instrument for the Conservation of Whales?† Marine Pollution Bulletin 46: 924-926. Holt, Sidney J.. 2000. â€Å"The Whaling Controversy.† Fisheries Research 54: 145-151. Holt, Sidney J.. 1985. â€Å"Whale Mining, Whale Saving.† Marine Policy 4: 192-214. O’Connell, Kate. July 2002. â€Å"The 2002 IWC Annual Meeting.† Whales Alive! 11(3).