Poll Shows Most Citizens in the Pacific Oppose Whale Hunting

A very comprehensive and complex opinion poll analysis which has been recently conducted, shows that most citizens of developing countries do not support the pro-whaling policies of their country's government, the BBC informs.


The research on this environmental issue that ran through ten countries in the Pacific and the Carribean, was called on by the environmental group WWF(World Wildlife Fund), just as the annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission is about to take place in St. Kitts.

The group targeted these ten specific countries, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Palau, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, the Solomon Islands, and Tuvalu, since it knows that their governments usually back pro-whaling measures most advocated for, by Japan. The question of the poll was: "Do you think your country should vote for or against a return to commercial whaling?"

The poll displayed the fact that people rather support the whale ban than call for its dismissal. This trend strangely occurred in the Marshall Islands as well, which has joined the IWC during the last month, allegedly helped by Japan. The strongest response came from Antigua Barbuda, where 79% of the citizens voted "no" and only 14% of them voted "yes", while Grenada was the only country which supported whaling and that by only a 1% margin.

On the occasion of the international forum, Japan hopes it would manage to gather more support to end a ban on whale hunting.

In response, the environmental group that commissioned the extensive poll, asks the delegates who will take part in the forum, to base their votes according to the results of the poll, since the evidence they provide is quite "overwhelming", as Sue Lieberman, the president of the WWF's global species programme described it.