Conservation Note
The IUCN Yellow Sea report, and a whaling announcement
An IUCN situation analysis on East Asian intertidal habitats, and Korea's announcement at the IWC that it would resume hunting Minke Whales.
Two subjects in one conversation with Nial Moores of Birds Korea, connected mainly by the country they concerned.
The first was the IUCN report “Situation analysis on East and Southeast Asian intertidal habitats, with particular reference to the Yellow Sea (including the Bohai Sea)”. Reports of that kind matter because they establish an agreed factual baseline: how much intertidal habitat has been lost, how fast, and what depends on it. Arguments about individual reclamation schemes are far harder to conduct without one, and far easier to conduct with.
The second was the Republic of Korea’s announcement, at the International Whaling Commission meeting in Panama City on 4 July, that it intended to resume hunting Minke Whales under the provision for scientific research. The announcement drew immediate international criticism and was subsequently not pursued.
The two sit oddly together and did so at the time. A country hosting major international conservation events, and publishing serious domestic conservation science, announcing a return to whaling at a multilateral meeting: the discussion was partly about how those coexist, and what an international reputation is worth as a lever.