Australian Environment Minister Peter Garrett said on Saturday that his country will send an envoy to Japan and will propose that the International Whaling Commission (IWC) close loopholes that allow Japan to continue whaling.
Garrett told reporters in Sydney that Australia would present the IWC with three main changes, including a collaborative international research program, bringing scientific whaling under the scrutiny of the commission, and carrying out plans to protect whales from contemporary threats, such as shipping and marine pollution.
"We have a responsibility to continue to increase our efforts to make sure that these beautiful animals aren't killed in the name of science," the Australian Associated Press quoted Garrett as saying.
"One of the ways to do that is to get into this International Whaling Commission, bring forward proposals for modernization, bring forward proposals for robust science and bring other countries on board as we build a coalition of interests which sees that the practices of the past don't have the support of the populations of the future."
He said the reforms would build on the IWC global moratorium on commercial whaling in the Indian and Pacific oceans, which was being breached by Japan in the name of scientific whaling.
Source: Xinhua
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