Legal Instruments Helping Whales
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Jonah Swallows the Whale: An Examination of American and International Failures To Adequately Protect Whales From Impending Extinction
Among the article's many points:
The failure of the President to impose import restrictions in each of the above situations, when these countries were clearly diminishing the effectiveness of the IWC, led to the passage, of the Packwood-Magnuson Amendment.
Following a review of the Pelly Amendment's perceived failures in preventing whaling countries from killing whales in excess of IWC quotas, Congress determined that too much discretion existed in the Pelly Amendment process and advocated instead that these deficiencies could be corrected by providing for mandatory sanctions upon certification. 89 The Packwood-Magnuson Amendment was specifically passed to remedy these past problems and "provide automatic and more severe economic sanctions by the United States against countries that do not abide by IWC whaling quotas."
A recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report, covering Whale Conservation and Whaling notes
"The threat of Packwood-Magnuson sanctions is no longer influential, since no foreign whaling nation currently fishes in U.S. waters."
© 2011. Patricia A. Michaels