The Port of Rotterdam Authority has taken the environmentalist lobby's side on whaling, asking that shipping companies and terminal operators to stop handling whale meat, despite evidence whale stocks are not under threat.
"Due to the social and political objections to whaling and transport of the meat via Rotterdam, the port authority asks shipping lines and terminal operators to stop shipping whale meat to Rotterdam," said the port authority statement, adding that it was calling on other ports to renounce whale meat too.
Wikipedia's entry on the International Whaling commission (IWC), which seeks to ban all whaling, says pro-whaling nations accuse the IWC of basing the ban on "political and emotional" factors rather than upon scientific evidence.
Wikipedia said the IWC's own "scientific committee has concluded since 1991 that quotas on some species of whale would be sustainable. They argue the IWC has swayed from its original purpose and is attempting, under the guise of conservation, to grant whales an entitlement to life," said the entry.
"In June 1993, the chairman of the [IWC] scientific committee, Philip Hammond, resigned in protest to what he saw as contempt of the committee's recommendations," said the entry.
There is no legal force in the Port of Rotterdam's plea as whale meat comes and goes in containers of frozen meat in a customs free zone, and does not officially enter the Netherlands.
PORTS
28 June 2013 - 21:53
Rotterdam moves to halt whale trade, despite lack of risk to species
The Port of Rotterdam Authority has taken the environmentalist lobby's side on whaling, asking that shipping companies and terminal operators to stop handling whale meat.
PORTS
28 June 2013 - 21:53
Rotterdam moves to halt whale trade, despite lack of risk to species
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