End cover-ups, lies and whaling

The environmental organisation also sought to document the
offloading of the ships cargo of whale meat, the by-product of the
so-called scientific hunt in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, which
is chopped and boxed on board the factory ship ready for market.

Last year, boxes of embezzled whale meat, some falsely labelled
“cardboard”, were offloaded and couriered to the homes of the ship’s
crew. Whistleblowers told Greenpeace that this was standard practice,
but the Fisheries Agency of Japan (FAJ), the Institute of Cetacean
Research (ICR) and Kyodo Senpaku (KS) publically denied it. It was
only later that the three managed to get their stories straight and
claimed that the boxes of prime whale meat were approved as
“souvenirs”.

It is now one year since Greenpeace activists Junichi Sato and Toru
Suzuki first exposed the embezzlement of whale meat from the fleet.
They are still on trial and facing up to ten years in prison, yet
nothing has been done to address the scandal and the real criminals
behind the embezzlement.

The FAJ promised greater transparency, but in January it again covered
up the truth by heavily censoring documents containing whale meat
sales data, released to Greenpeace following a Freedom of Information
request. The FAJ, ICR and KS also denied another request to allow a
Greenpeace documentation crew to monitor the whale meat being
offloaded from the fleet this year.

“With the whaling fleet’s history of embezzlement, Greenpeace has
requested that all whale meat offloaded be documented,” said Junichi
Sato of Greenpeace Japan. “If the “souvenir” practice has been
legitimised, the public should at least be told how much of the 1.2
billion yen it has spent subsidising the so-called scientific whaling
expedition has been spent on buying gifts for the crew.”

At a time when Japan suffering its worst recession for a generation,
the government’s massive subsidisation of an unwanted, unneeded, and
increasingly secretive programme is a slap in the face for Japanese
taxpayers. That it is still punishing critics such as Sato and Suzuki
adds insult to injury.

“With warehouse full to over flowing with whale meat from previous
years hunts, which can’t even be given away, this years catch of 680
whales is still 680 too many,”(1) said Sato. “The writing is on the
wall for this economically and ecologically bankrupt practice. This
must be the last of these so-called “scientific” whaling expeditions.”

Notes:

1) Fisheries Agency of Japan Press Release 13th April, 2009
http://www.jfa.maff.go.jp/j/press/enyou/090413.html

2) Japan's stolen whale meat scandal, Part 2: The cover up: available
from: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/assets/binaries/the-cover-up

3) Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki were arrested on June 20th, 2008, and
spent 26 days in custody before being charged. The case against them
is still before the court, and the next pre-trial date is currently
set for May 15. http://www.greenpeace.org/tokyo-two/