The “save the whales” slogan might seem like a vestige from the 1970s, a bumper sticker that has long worn out its usefulness. But the rallying cry is very much alive for one Cape Cod organization that is helping lead the charge to prevent the legalization of whale hunting.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare in Yarmouth has launched a campaign aimed at persuading the Obama administration to resist a compromise plan that would sanction limited whale hunting (as well as a campaign to encourage Congress to pass whale-friendly legislation). The administration is expected to take an official stand on this issue later this month, in anticipation of a June meeting of the International Whaling Commission.

Whales are still hunted by crews from three countries – Norway, Japan and Iceland – in defiance of a global moratorium. Supporters of the compromise plan say it would be better to regulate the hunting by getting those three countries on board than to allow the whale hunts to continue without an international plan in place.

But Chris Cutter, a spokesman for the IFAW, tells me that rewriting the 1986 moratorium would just encourage more hunting of whales for meat in those countries. “These are three countries that have acted in bad faith under the moratorium,” Cutter says. “The idea that they’re going to come in line and begin to work with the international community is hard to swallow.”

Cutter says the whaling industry is shrinking anyway as companies struggle to find markets for whale meat (which, of course, is banned in the United States), and most countries have turned their backs on whaling a long time ago. He argues there’s no reason to give this dying industry a lifeline.

The IFAW, like other many major environmental organizations, continued to make putting an end to whale-hunting a priority long after the practice slipped from the public consciousness. But it’s probably a safe bet that this issue will be making headlines again here in the U.S. in the next few weeks. “It’s been something we’ve campaigned on for years,” Cutter says. “We’re ratcheting it up given the urgency.”

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