TROUBLED WATERS - Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society

Wijdicks E F M 2002. Brain death worldwide. Accepted fact but no global consensus in diagnostic criteria.
Neurology 58: 20-5.
Footnotes
1 Norwegian quota is set at 711 for 2003.
2 Japanese quota combined Japanese Antarctic Whaling Research Program (JARPA) and North Pacific Whaling
Research Program (JARPN).
3 Immediately – The definition of ‘immediate’ is taken by whaling countries to mean ‘in less than 10 seconds’
(times shorter than this being proposed as impossible to determine during the period immediately after the
harpoon impact due to movement and splashing). In many documents, the phrase ‘instantaneous kill’ is used,
but this terminology provides an inaccuracy at the heart of the language used when describing whaling, since
not only is ‘instantaneous death’ not possible biologically (any large organism will take at least milliseconds
for neural activity to cease), but also impossible temporally as ‘instantaneous’ time is unmeasurable.
4 Previous calls to refine the criteria for time to death determination – 1992 (IWC/44/18) in a report of the
Workshop on Whale Killing Methods (Item 9), 1995 (IWC/47/18) in Appendix 4 of the report of the
Workshop on Whale Killing Methods – action plan, 1995 (IWC/47/18) in Appendix 5, suggestions for
research needs on whale killing, 1999 (IWC/51/WK15) a proposal for the study of the dying process aimed
at improvement of the evaluation of killing methods, 1999 (IWC/51/WK12) – report on the Workshop on
Whale Killing Methods.
REVIEW OF CRITERIA FOR DETERMINING DEATH AND INSENSIBILITY IN CETACEA
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