The environmental organization is trying to pressure whaling countries like Japan and Iceland to stop whaling entirely, something that a trading system might be hard-pressed to accomplish.
The Australian government, a vocal critic of Japan's whaling, is under pressure to act on reports that the whalers had chartered Australian aircraft to "spy" on the Sea Shepherd's vessels.
(AP) JAPAN: WHALERS WELCOMED -- In an exuberant ceremony of defiance of international pressure to end whaling, officials, whaling advocates and crew members celebrated the return to port of a vessel carrying the remains of 88 whales.
"It's not digging coal, is it, or whaling, but there is pressure to go on and get it right," he said in his sweetly cynical brogue.
The International Whaling Commission on Monday began what promises to be a contentious, high-stakes meeting in Morocco on whether to maintain a 24-year-old moratorium on commercial whaling in the face of pressure from Japan, Norway and Iceland to permit the hunt.
Does the market for whale meat in Japan encourage illegal whaling and trading of whale products?
"Constant pressure on Japan's whaling industry by both Greenpeace and the international community has reduced the fleet to sneaking out of port in a fog of crisis and scandal, desperate to avoid attention," said Sara Holden, a Greenpeace spokeswoman.
In addition, two studies report positive associations between MeHg exposure and increased diastolic blood pressure (DBP): the Faroese whaling men study by Choi et al. (2009) and a study in a Philippine gold mining community (Cortes-Maramba et al. 2006).
It is time to put pressure on Iceland's illegal whaling industry by imposing trade sanctions. .
But even as whales have faded as a resource and cemented their status as an environmental icon, with whale watching now a billion-dollar business, pressure is building to end the 18-year moratorium on commercial whaling.
