Feature story - June 20, 2006
The International Whaling Commission meetings may have ended
today, but the action really heated up when the Arctic Sunrise,
after being refused entry into the waters of St. Kitts for more
than a week, arrived on the beach despite the lack of an
invitation. Our activists quickly began placing more than 866 whale
tails in the sand to symbolize the number of whales slaughtered by
the Japanese government this year. St. Kitts' authorities quickly
arrived on the scene and arrested 10 of our activists.
The International Whaling Commission meetings dramatically
displayed how narrow a margin exists between the pro-whaling and
anti-whaling nations. A mere 2 votes prevented Japan from
eliminating conservation efforts for dolphins, porpoises, and small
whales; and implementing a secret ballot. The Japanese delegation
also narrowly lost their bids to abolish the Southern Ocean Whale
Sanctuary, exempt themselves from the commercial whaling ban, and
kick Greenpeace out of the IWC meetings. The story might have
ended differently if thousands of emails and faxes from Greenpeace
members hadn't convinced two countries in the Japan's back pocket
to just stay home. (See, those emails really do make a
difference!)
But after losing several votes, Japan pulled out all the stops,
and actually won a non-binding resolution pronouncing that whales
are guilty of over-fishing - by 1 vote! That's right, the Japanese
succeeded in convincing more than 30 nations that whales eat too
much fish! And that wasn't the only fishy thing that happened
during the meetings. One of Japan's pro-whaling allies arrived late
to the meetings with their membership fees in cash, in a brown
paper bag.
The stage is clearly set for next year's meeting in Alaska.
With its ambitions thwarted again this year, and the margin razor
thin, Japan will come back stronger than ever next year. It will
take everything we have to turn the tide. Now more than ever, the
fight to protect whales is at a critical phase. That's why we'll be
returning to the Southern Ocean this winter to confront the
Japanese whalers again.
TAKE ACTION >> We've taken a stand against Japanese
whaling, now it's your turn to send a strong message!