The Esperanza has shadowed the Japanese whaling fleet, including the crippled mothership Nisshin Maru, out of the Southern Ocean. Most of the crew are quite relieved to be approaching Sydney considering the terrible weather the last few days. But even as the voyage comes to an end, our work is far from over...
The Esperanza is on her way to (hopefully sunny) Sydney
The Esperanza is heading to Sydney fresh from the Southern
Ocean, to meet and greet Ocean Defenders and our Australian
supporters.
For more information on how you can get on board, please see
Greenpeace Australia Pacific's website
.
But whaling will never be stopped in the Southern Ocean alone.
It's only a few months until the International Whaling Commission
(IWC) meets in Anchorage, Alaska. Recently Cyprus announced it was
joining the IWC - good news for the whales, and Turkey and Poland
have also started procedures to join. But there is a long way to
go before ensuring that the anti- whaling nations have a definite
majority at the meeting.
The "normalisation" meeting
In February, the Japanese government held a meeting in Tokyo to
"normalise" the IWC.
As we reported, it seemed that "normalise" means "continue
business as usual" -- in this case, keep on catching whales.
Recently, thousands of Ocean Defenders andGreenpeace
cyberactivists asked the Danish government not to go to
the"normalisation" meeting, which intended to pave the way for
resumingcommercial whaling after the next IWC meeting.
Unfortunately, theDanish IWC commissioner Ole Samsing attended the
meeting anyway. Buton a positive note, what he said there was well
reported to the Danishpublic, the majority of whom don't support
commercial whaling and wantto see an end to it for good.
From ocean to office: Denmark and the IWC
The Danish commissioner made some statements endorsing a return
of the whaling industry, and suggesting that decisions about
whaling should be made in closed meetings with the press and
non-governmental organizations (like Greenpeace) excluded. Now the
Danish Foreign Affairs Minister is under pressure.
The native population of Greenland, which has a special
relationship to Denmark, conducts a traditional "subsistence"
hunt. However, in our opinion, Greenlandic society has no interest
in the Danish government being still more supportive to the
Japanese government's position on whaling, since the traditional
Greenlandic hunt is very different to the commercial whaling that
the Japanese government is fighting to bring back.
Under pressure
In the near future Denmark's Foreign Affairs Minister has to
explain the Danish IWC position to parliament - a debate that is
desperately needed.
To
keep up the pressure we urgently ask you to send an email to the
Danish minister for foreign affairs, Per Stig Moller.
Take Action!
Keep the pressure on Denmark to vote for whales at the next IWC
More you can do (even with Lego!)
Check out whales.greenpeace.org for more campaign ideas, or make your own!