Finally, Common Sense Prevails !

I heard two bits of great news today !

1. Whilst the reason for the cancellation (drought) is tragic, the upside is that the Duck shooting season in the state of Victoria has been cancelled for the second consecutive year - woohoo !! Finally some common sense prevails. With duck numbers, habitat availability and breeding levels, in some cases, at their lowest levels in 25 years, this is awesome news.

2. Japan has apparently agreed not to kill humpback whales during its current Antarctic hunt. Japan's whaling fleet set sail last month with plans to catch more than 1,000 whales, including 50 humpbacks, before returning to port early next year. Humpbacks were hunted to near extinction until the International Whaling Commission ordered their protection in 1966 and the planned hunt had sparked a loud outcry from activists. Australia today announced that it would send a fisheries patrol ship to shadow Japan's whaling fleet near Antarctica and gather evidence for a possible international court challenge to halt the yearly hunt.

Acting against the whalers was one of the new Labor-led Australian government's election pledges. "We are dealing here with the slaughter of whales, not scientific research," Mr Smith told a news conference in Canberra. "That is our start point and our end point." A formal protest would also be lodged with the Japanese government within weeks, he said, without naming other nations involved.

"The Australian government will take all diplomatic measures to seek to persuade the Japanese government to stop the whale slaughter," Australian broadcaster ABC quoted Mr Smith as saying.

Yeah !!