Living Resources
Living Resources Whales and lee: Common Themes of Antarctica, Whaling, and the Law of the Sea Sidney J. Holt* International League JOT the Protection oJ Cetaceans, and Third Millennium Foundation, Umbria, Italy Elisabeth Mann Borgese, to whose memory this special volume of the Ocean Yearbook is dedieated, would not, I think, have liked what has happened to the idea of the New International Order she and her elose collaborator, Ambassador Arvid Pardo, so cherished. The current weakening of the United Nations system, on whieh 'We the Peoples," individually and coIlec tively, placed such high hopes after 1945-especially through the failures of powerful governments to enter into new binding agreements and uphold old ones, and to support existing and new international institutions, and the blatant buying of votes in decision-making bodies by a few of the most influential and rieher states-does not bode weIl for our collective future. This is a time when those of us who worked with Elisabeth must reflect deeply on where the so-called "international community" is now going. BACKGROUND The late 1960s and early 1970s witnessed the beginnings ofvast changes in the regimes governing the use and protection of the resources of Antarctica and the surrounding ocean. Ambassador Arvid Pardo, acting on behalf of the Government of Malta, put forward his proposals for the fundamental revision and extension of the Law of the Sea, and the Government of the United States began to press for a pause in all commercial whaling opera tions. For many, perhaps most, people concerned about what Elisabeth and Arvid referred to as "international ocean affairs" and human activities *EDITORS , NOTE.-The author is grateful for the support in the preparation of this paper offered by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, Yarmouth Port, Ma, U.S.A.
[Show full text]