Maria Cantwell: “as ranking member of the Fisheries and Coast Guard Subcommittee of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and…”

“as ranking member of the Fisheries and Coast Guard Subcommittee of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, I am pleased to join the chairwoman of the subcommittee, Senator Snowe, in submitting a resolution regarding the policy of the United States at the upcoming 58th Annual Meeting of the International Whaling Commission, IWC. I wish to also thank my Senate colleagues Mr. Kerry, Mrs. Dole, Ms. Boxer, Mr. Feingold, Mr. Reed, Mr. Lautenberg, Mr. McCain, Mr. Lieberman, Ms. Collins, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Dodd, Ms. Feinstein, Mr. Menendez, Mr. Levin, Mr. Biden, Mr. Dayton, Mr. Jeffords, Ms. Landrieu, and Mr. Kennedy for cosponsoring as well. The resolution we introduce today comes at a time when the United States and other like-minded nations are facing new and intensifying challenges within the IWC to adopt policies detrimental to our stated opposition to commercial and lethal scientific whaling. In 1982, due to the severe impacts of whaling on the populations of large whale species, the IWC adopted an indefinite moratorium on all commercial whaling. Although Japan, Iceland, Norway, and other countries in favor of commercial whaling do not yet have the necessary three-quarters majority on the IWC to lift the moratorium, for the first time they may have the simple majority needed to control procedure and to adopt resolutions contrary to the longstanding positions of the IWC.…”