A new plenary meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), the 63rd since its creation, started today at the Island of Jersey, United Kingdom, and it will last until Thursday 14th.
One of the most urgent issues to resolve, was not related to conservation or research matters, nor killing methods or catch quotas. The priority issue to be addressed was to find a chairman for the IWC since its former president, the Chilean Ambassador Cristián Maquieira, had resigned before the start of the meeting of 2010 and, therefore, the vice-president at that time, the Ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda, Anthony Liverpool, became the acting president, until today. Today, Herman Oosthuizen, Commissioner for South Africa was elected as the chairman of the IWC.

Just before the opening, the Latin countries that were present, and with right to vote, were Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico and Panama. By time we were writing this article, Dominican Republic was on its way to Jersey, while Nicaragua, Peru, Uruguay and Guatemala were absent, and due to lack of payment of their quotas, without right to vote.

Today, Colombia made its debut in the IWC, and it began its opening speech defending the conservationist position, and the non-lethal use of cetaceans, reaffirming whale watching and expressing the position taken by the bloc of Latin American countries (known as Buenos Aires Group), among which Argentina has a fundamental role.

For more information about IWC, visit the IWC and CITES section of our web page or visit the official IWC site