Karen Steuer Quotations

Signed in the 1940s, the Convention on Whaling is a gentleman's agreement without enforcement provisions. That would be fine if Japan knew how to act like a gentleman.

If this hunt goes through, there will be other requests coming to the Russian government to hunt belugas. Before long we could have a hunt of a couple thousand Belugas. Once you start commercial whaling in any species, you have to make sure all of the bells and whistles are in place, that all the regulations are there from A to Z. Every time we have had a commercial hunt of whales there has been over-exploitation.

Japan tends to focus on small-island developing states with marine-focused economies and marine-focused cultures.

We are still unclear about what's in the water. We don't know the potential impact on food resources. Long-term assessments are needed.

Something rare and new usually brings a high price.

Any major change to convention regulations requires a three-fourths vote. Japan has a quarter block over the minority on most issues. That creates an uphill hurdle when it comes to increasing or decreasing protection for whales.

This kicks the issue to the next conference of CITES parties, when we'll hopefully have more info on poaching and the status of elephant populations.

It is very clear that regional fishery management organizations have failed to properly conserve shark populations. This is a great disappointment for shark conservation.

It takes a great deal of effort to either add or subtract a species from listing.