Guest : Bo Fernholm and Thomas Lyrhom, Swedish Museum of Natural History December 12 2010

Save the Whales! was the battle cry of classic environmentalism of the 1960-70s, with the iconic and threatened animal coming to symbolize the entire movement. The moratorium on whaling by most commercial whaling nations in 1986 seemed to signal that whales were finally protected, and public attention could move on to other pressing environmental matters. Commercial whaling, however, is still practiced by several nations. Recent images of whales being hauled aboard factory ships in the North Atlantic, and confrontations between whalers and activists in the Southern Ocean, show that whales are not as safe as we thought.

This Sunday, two authorities on whale science and policy from the Swedish Museum of Natural History, Prof Bo Fernholm – Swedish Commissioner and former Chairman of the International Whaling Commission – and Thomas Lyrholm – cetacean scientist and advisor to the Swedish government and member of the scientific committee of the IWC – visit Think Globally Radio to discuss the background and recent developments in the environmental issue that never really went away.

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