Chanting and holding up placards in front of a 100-foot inflatable blue whale, Chilean schoolchildren and dozens of activists held vigil in Santiago last month outside the 60th annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), a global grouping of 81 nations charged with deciding the fate of the world’s whales. But as the five-day meeting progressed, the host country’s government made some noise of its own, firmly placing Chile among the world’s staunchest whale defenders. Chile’s center-left President Michelle Bachelet, speaking at a former whaling products processing plant called Quintay that from 1943 to 1967 turned out meat, oils and other whale products, signed a decree declaring whales a national monument, prohibiting killing of the mammals. Bachelet also sent legislation to... [Log in to read more]