Posted by Dave (in Anchorage, Alaska)
Well, I’ve just survived my first day at the International Whaling Commission (IWC), and I have to report, it’s been a fairly weird experience. I’ve met scientists and commissioners and cameramen and former prime ministers. And apparently, the chief of Anchorage police has been saying nice things about me.
On having my ID card swiped by security on the way into the massive function room of the Captain Cook Hotel, I was confronted by hundreds and hundreds of people from all over the world, most of them dressed in sober business clothing. They’re in rows of seats or at tables, facing towards the podium, where Bill Hogarth, with his murmuring Virginian accent, is chairing the meeting.
In here somewhere are various Greenpeace folk – John, Jun, Karen, Junichi, Shane, Samuel, Antje, Thilo, Frode and Milko.
This room is a short walk from the waters of Cook Inlet, and the ocean, yet it seems to be on another planet from the lives of cetaceans – yet its where the lives of whiles are saved or lost.