The Un-funny Joke of the IWC

It's been a long day today and I still have too much shit to do. I'm totally tired, but a bitch's work is never done, so I'll just keep going. I suppose I could have been getting some of my shit done while I yakked on the phone for a few hours this evening, but, well, I didn't. For reasons soon to be disclosed (I fucking hope) I had to do some ass kissing on some guy who may hold the key to my near (again, I fucking hope) futuro chango, so I had to give him some undivided attention. And then I talked to my cousin for a while, and for some reason I need to lay on the floor and play with my hair whenever I talk to her. Some kind of teenage regression takes over me that I can't explain.
So what I'm trying to say in these wasted 150 words is that I don't have time for this, but I learned something interesting from Cousin Jenn today.
She told me the whale tale where that 100 year old weapon fragment was found embedded in the blubber of a recently killed Bowhead whale off the coast of Alaska. In case you missed it like I did, read it here. I didn't know people were still killing whales, so today I learned...

People are still killing whales.

Why? Does anybody use whale oil anymore? Are we so hungry that we need to eat whale meat? I love whales, but I'm not one of those whale-loving freaky chicks getting my panties pulled too tight (mainly because I'm usually not wearing any). I just thought whaling was an out-dated, old fashion practice that was banned a long time ago.
So I did a little research. Admittedly little, but here's what I found.

Whale oil is rarely used anymore.

Obesity is a global epidemic. 1 in 10 children are obese. Even developing "starving" countries are starting to show percentages in their overweight population.

The International Whaling Commission is about as effective as our current immigration system.

Basically what I got out of the 4 minutes of scanning the IWC on Wikipedia is that participation by countries in the organization is voluntary, the IWC has no authority to enforce whale killing quotas, and even if they did have authority, there are two HUGE exceptions to the rules, which basically leaves the whole idea of regulation as water tight as swiss cheese.