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In 2005 our activists attempt to disrupt Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean. © Greenpeace/Kate Davison
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Greenpeace Australia Pacific chief executive Steve Shallhorn said that the Rudd government had done the right thing by sending the Oceanic Viking to monitor the illegal whaling operation. “It’s unlikely that the Japanese will kill threatened humpbacks or endangered fin whales while they are being observed,” he said.
The Australian government is also taking a number of diplomatic steps such as creating a new Special Envoy for whale protection.
A very clear message needs to be sent to Japan: no country will be allowed a policy of killing a species listed in Appendix A of CITES. The Japanese government is breaching this global trade treaty with its plans to import humpback whale meat into Japan.
CITES regulates the sale and transport of vulnerable wildlife species across national borders, including species killed on the high seas and then imported into a CITES member country. More than 170 countries are members of CITES, including Japan (which joined the treaty in 19800and Australia.
A formal complaint to Japan from CITES would also raise awareness within Japan that the Japanese government is whaling within a whale sanctuary and killing threatened species. Very few Japanese people are aware that their government is spending $1 billion in taxpayers’ money to kill whales thousands of miles away. They think Japanese whaling is carried out in the coastal waters of Japan.
Now more than ever we need your support to help us save the whales.
The Australian government is also taking a number of diplomatic steps such as creating a new Special Envoy for whale protection.
Greenpeace takes action
The Greenpeace ship Esperanza recently departed Auckland for the Southern Ocean. Our activists on the ship will take peaceful direct action by placing themselves between the whalers’ harpoons and the whales.Read more updates from the Esperanza blog
Our government needs to take more action
Besides our action in the Southern Ocean, Greenpeace is also calling on the Australian government to make a formal complaint to the CITES Secretariat against Japan’s killing of humpbacks under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).A very clear message needs to be sent to Japan: no country will be allowed a policy of killing a species listed in Appendix A of CITES. The Japanese government is breaching this global trade treaty with its plans to import humpback whale meat into Japan.
CITES regulates the sale and transport of vulnerable wildlife species across national borders, including species killed on the high seas and then imported into a CITES member country. More than 170 countries are members of CITES, including Japan (which joined the treaty in 19800and Australia.
A formal complaint to Japan from CITES would also raise awareness within Japan that the Japanese government is whaling within a whale sanctuary and killing threatened species. Very few Japanese people are aware that their government is spending $1 billion in taxpayers’ money to kill whales thousands of miles away. They think Japanese whaling is carried out in the coastal waters of Japan.
Now more than ever we need your support to help us save the whales.
TAKE ACTION: sign the petition to help stop whaling.
