Luxembourg attends International Whaling Commission Meeting in Slovenia

The 66th biennial meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) will this year be held from 24 to 28 October in Portoroz, Slovenia.

This year, IWC is celebrating both the 70th anniversary of its establishment in 1946, and also the 30-year moratorium on commercial whaling that came into effect in 1986.

The main issues of this year's meeting are:

- The decision on aboriginal whaling quotas that are reviewed every two years;

- A proposal to adopt a new process for granting Aboriginal quotas;

- Discussions on the new scientific whaling program in Antarctica Japan;

- Discussions on Japan's request for small scale coastal hunting;

- A resolution on the creation of a whale sanctuary, protected areas or underwater national parks that protect whales and other marine life-forms against human threats in the South Atlantic.

Luxembourg has long been an active member of the IWC. The Luxembourg expert, Dr Peter Gallego, was sent by the Minister of the Environment, Carole Dieschbourg, representing the Ministry of Sustainable Development, Environment and Infrastructure at the conference.