Should we compromise with nations that hunt whales?

Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution “A deal with Japan on whaling?”

Having been a fan of Whale Wars for awhile, and being predisposed to thinking that we ought to protect large, social, cooperative, cognitively-advanced animals, it is a bit hard for me to accept legal whaling of any kind. But as this article points out (and perhaps the need for Sea Shepherd also points out), the current “moratorium” on whaling is not working.

I am fascinated by the assertion in this article that a new whaling agreement could be enforced using various relatively-new technologies such that there would be no cheating on the agreement. If true, that is an exciting prospect, and a model for other previously-difficult-to-enforce international agreements.