A huge thank you to all of you sent a protest email during this last week of battling to protect the whales.

Your actions directly affected the IWC meeting. In an attempt to avoid controversy, the vote on allowing Greenland to hunt 10 humpbacks a year has been postponed until a special meeting later in the year.

For the full story please read on here.

Although there was real progress on some issues such as climate change, many pressing issues were avoided:

• A decision on the Danish proposal for Greenland to hunt 10 humpback whales a year was postponed.

• Norwegian and Icelandic whaling has not been addressed.

• No action has been taken to condemn the escalating trade in whale meat.

Our battle is far from over. We will be encouraging the USA to take another look at its position on the Greenland issue and we look forward to a new US position as the Obama team takes over the leadership of the US delegation.

We are thankful for the strong efforts by the UK and Germany, as well as Belgium and Luxembourg, who tried to uphold the European stand against whaling activities. But we have to address the fact that the European Union was compromised by its perceived need to negotiate on almost everything.

We are pleased that climate change was recognised to represent a growing threat to whales, and we are appreciative of US efforts on that front, at least.

We will keep you updated on our website and via our blog but I wanted to thank you for your support and let you know that the fight goes on.

WDCS is proud to be here to ensure your voice is heard and through your support, give a voice to the whales.

Chris Butler-Stroud

Chief Executive

WDCS, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society