Posted on: Tuesday, September 10, 2002

EDITORIAL
Whale sanctuaries provide needed space

The history of whaling and of the South Pacific are forever intertwined.

Anyone who has read the works of Melville and others knows how important whaling was to the islands of the Pacific. But it is encouraging that many of these islands, while far from rejecting their history, have decided to reject whaling in its modern form.

A recent report says the Cook Islands, French Polynesia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Niue have banned whaling in their territorial waters, which can extend 200 miles from shore and thus encompass millions of square miles of ocean.

Those islands join New Zealand, Australia, the United States and Tonga in banning whaling within their exclusive economic zone.

In the immediate sense, these bans will have little impact. There has been little whaling in the Pacific for decades. And a 1986 international moratorium put additional limits on whaling except for limited purposes.

What the bans will do, over time, is produce huge areas of the ocean where whales will be protected and allowed to breed and hunt for food without interference.

It is a good example of international cooperation toward the common goal of saving these magnificent animals that share our watery global home.