The return of whaling?

When I was five years old I saw my first whale. It was a Beluga Whale at the Minnesota Zoo. I can barely remember it, but I do remember staring at this creature that I found so intriguing and beautiful. My Mom told me that it was then that I declared to her that one day I would work with whales. I never lost interest. They remain my favorite animal today. I remember in fourth grade having to do a research project on an animal and I did it on killer whales. In fifth grade I discovered what a marine biologist was and decided that I was going to be one when I grew up. I didn't give up on that dream until I was a freshman in college and realized that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't pass Biology. In sixth grade I did another report on whales. That year I also had to write a debate and read it in front of my class, I did it on saving the whales. It was also in sixth grade that I got into the only physical (yet brief) fight I have ever been in to this day, when a boy kept saying how whales should be killed because they were useless creatures. I pulled his hair and he punched me in the chest. In grade school and middle school I used to go to the public library and check out every book they had about whales, not just the children's books, but the adult ones, the ones with all the scientific information. I would read them cover to cover. I did this many times, often checking out the same books because I ran out of new ones to check out after a couple of months. When looking at pictures in the books of whaling, I would cry. Looking at them now, I still cry. In high school, when I learned about Greenpeace, I remember telling my Dad that I want to be one of the people on the boats putting themselves between the whale and the harpoon, he didn't like that idea; I would still do it. My last semester of college, I worked on a group project on the social aspect of saving whales. I passed my intrigue of whales onto the kindergarteners I watched, reading whale books to them and measuring out the length of a Blue Whale in the hallway. I wear my Humpback Whale necklace that I got in San Francisco everyday, I have for the past 8 years. Whales are still a part of me, my love, my dream. I am often upset with myself for how easily I gave up on my dream to work with whales. I don't need to be a marine biologist to work with them, I could photograph them. And why haven't I gone a whale-watching trip yet? It is stupid that I haven't, it would be so simple to do. But mostly, what is stupid and makes me most upset is that I don't do enough, as an environmentalist, to protect these beautiful, gentle, mysterious creatures. And now, today, in 2006, I read that whaling may be up and swinging again in a few years. There is an International Whaling Commission to protect whales. It first started out, many years ago, as a way to regulate whaling, but turned to anti-whaling in 1986 when the numbers of whales were reaching extinction. Many countries joined and created safe areas where whales could not be hunted at all. Some countries, such as Japan and Norway continued hunting whales under a loophole of "scientific whaling", claiming they needed to do so for research. In June, the IWC will face a vote on whether or not whales should continued to be protected. Japan has been giving small countries aid (a.k.a. a bribe) to join the committee and become pro-whaling. This is a problem because they only need a 75% vote to stop the anti-whalers and with Japan buying off coutnries, it no longer looks like a matter of if it happens but a matter of when. And with global warming causing water temperatures to rise, whales are facing extiction (such as a small kind of Beluga Whales in Alaska) and with whaling starting again, it won't be long before these beautiful creatures are all gone. So starting today, I am renewing my commitment to whales. I don't know how yet, but there has to be something I can do. I will not let my life's love and dream die. Save the Whales.