Japan commits to commercial whaling despite humpback backdown

But even better news would be that no fin whales or minke whales are to be slaughtered either. The news that the world is waiting for is that harpoons will cease to breach the whale sanctuary.  Japan still plans to kill 50 fin and 935 minke whales this year. Saving one species is not enough.

The Japanese cabinet announcement on humpbacks opened with a reference to the true aim of the whaling 'research' program being a return to commercial whaling - which Japan calls 'normalising' the International Whaling Commission.

The entire so-called scientific whaling program is scandal that is two decades old and, for the first time, the Japanese government is acknowledging their true agenda is to pave the way for what they call “sustainable” commercial whaling.

Japan has backed down in the face of public outrage over killing the favourite whale of whale-watchers.  Japan has also realised that the humpback whale meat that would result from the hunt could face a legal challenge under the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

Greenpeace takes action

The Greenpeace ship Esperanza recently departed Auckland for the Southern Ocean. Our activists on board will take peaceful non-violent direct action by placing themselves between the whalers’ harpoons and the whales.

Follow the action: read updates from the Esperanza blog

Secret plans to build new ship threatened

The Japanese Fisheries Agency was clearly alarmed at the mounting attention being paid to a "research program" which yields no useful science, and which adds to a stockpile of unsold whale meat which hardly anyone buys.  They are worried about the attention the humpbacks have drawn to their plans to kill 935 minces and 50 endangered fins.  But most of all, they are worried about attention being drawn to the plans of a few bureaucrats within Japan who are planning a massive expansion of the whale hunt, by constructing a new whaling factory ship at a cost of some US$125 million to US$188 million, at the expense of Japanese taxpayers.

Now is the time to end the slaughter forever

The future of whaling could well depend upon whether a new factory ship gets built or not.  We believe the Japanese taxpayer has a right to ask whether billions of yen should be invested in this industry - especially given that it generates no useful science, adds to a mountain of unsold whale meat, poses a diplomatic liability to Japan, and in the end will put recovery of whale populations at risk.

Now is the time to press Japan to abandon the whale hunt entirely and to stop the build of a new whaling factory ship. 

Now more than ever we need your support to help us save the whales.

TAKE ACTION: sign the petition to help stop whaling

TAKE ACTION: demand investigation into new whaling ship

DONATE: to our whales campaign