BILL ANALYSIS
AJR 44
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Date of Hearing: June 29, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON WATER, PARKS AND WILDLIFE
Jared William Huffman, Chair
AJR 44 (Hill) - As Introduced: June 14, 2010
SUBJECT : Commercial Whaling: Moratoriums
SUMMARY : Requests the President and Congress of the United
States to provide for conservation of whale stocks and
memorializes the Legislature's opposition to the current
International Whaling Commission's proposal to lift the current
moratorium on commercial whaling. Specifically, this bill :
1)Makes various legislative findings and declarations regarding
the intelligence and importance of whales to ocean ecosystems,
to Californians and to coastal industries, including tourism,
and regarding the negative impacts of whaling on these
species.
2)Declares that legalizing commercial whaling would decimate
whale stocks and is contrary to this state's goal of
protecting our marine mammal populations, fisheries and ocean
resources.
3)Requests the President and Congress to do everything in their
power to provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks,
and declares the Legislature's opposition to the International
Whaling Commission's proposal to lift the whaling moratorium,
which would have the effect of leaving enforcement of new
whaling quotas to nations that have been violating the current
moratorium and allow whale hunting in the Southern Ocean Whale
Sanctuary.
EXISTING LAW : The International Convention for the Regulation
of Whaling was ratified by the United States in 1946. The
Convention established the International Whaling Commission
(IWC), the purpose of which is to provide for conservation of
whale stocks and make possible the orderly development of the
whaling industry. The IWC implemented a moratorium on
commercial whaling in 1986.
FISCAL EFFECT : This bill is non-fiscal.
COMMENTS : This resolution calls on the federal government to
AJR 44
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oppose a proposal by the IWC, the international body tasked with
regulation of whaling, to lift a 24-year whaling moratorium.
According to information provided by the author, the United
States is leading an effort by a handful of whaling nations,
primarily Japan, Norway and Iceland, to broker an agreement to
lift the moratorium. The proposed agreement would set 10-year
quotas and commercial catch limits for whale species for both
subsistence and commercial whaling, including a 10-year quota
for 145 California gray whales per year. The IWC was scheduled
to consider the proposed agreement at their annual meeting June
21-25, 2010.
The author notes that despite the 1986 moratorium established by
the IWC, the number of whales killed annually has risen steadily
from 300 in 1990 to nearly 1,700 last year, as the three whaling
nations have refused to comply and have either opted out of the
treaty, continuing to hunt whales commercially, or claimed to be
taking whales only for scientific study. There is concern that
lifting the moratorium would serve to legitimize commercial
whaling and could devastate whale populations. The author
asserts that as a coastal state dedicated to protection of our
marine mammal populations, fisheries, and ocean resources,
California has a responsibility to provide for proper
conservation of whales.
The California Ocean Protection Council, a cabinet-level council
including the Secretary for Natural Resources, the State
Controller and State Lands Commission Chair, and the Secretary
for Environmental Protection, has submitted a letter to the
President strongly opposing commercial and scientific whaling
anywhere in the world's oceans, and contending, among other
things, that lifting the moratorium on commercial and scientific
whaling would do irrevocable harm to vital populations of whale
species.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on file.
Opposition
None on file.
AJR 44
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Analysis Prepared by : Diane Colborn / W., P. & W. / (916)
319-2096