The Yushin Maru catcher ship of the Japanese whaling fleet injures a whale with its first harpoon attempt, and takes a further three harpoon shots before finally killing the badly injured fleeing whale. Finally they drowned the mammal beneath the harpoon deck of the ship to kill it.
During the first vote on the opening day of the Conference,
Japan moved called to have any reference for a discussion on
conservation of small cetaceans (dolphins and porpoises) to be
struck from the agenda. The motion was defeated 32 votes to 30. The
second and deciding vote on Japan's call for secret ballots was
defeated by 33 votes to 30.
This means the whalers have stumbled in their bid to take over
the IWC.
For years Japan has been trying overturn the 1986 IWC moratorium
on commercial whaling. It has been accused of buying votes in
exchange for foreign aid for fisheries given to many countries who
they have encouraged to become IWC members and who supported the
pro-whaling position. Having failed to win the majority at last
years meeting, one of the Japanese delegation made their intentions
clear: "The reversal of history, the turning point is soon to
come." (2) "Whaling history may not have been rewritten this year
but it was to close for comfort. The anti-whaling countries must
see this as a wake-up call and add action to their rhetoric about
protecting whales. This year Greenpeace will once again challenge
the whalers on the high seas, the question is what are the
anti-whaling countries prepared to do?" said Shane Rattenbury, head
of the Greenpeace International Oceans Campaign.
With a simple majority at the Commission, Japan would not have
been able to overturn the commercial moratorium on whaling but it
could have wreaked havoc with the IWC's measure to protect whales.
It could have had Greenpeace expelled from the IWC, instigated
secret ballots, forced a resolution endorsing its "scientific"
whaling programme and called for on the Convention for the Trade in
endangered Species (CITES) to lift its ban on the trade in minke
whales.
This year all of the private companies behind the Japan's
so-called scientific whaling pulled out claiming that there is no
profit to be made from whaling and that too few Japanese people are
interested in eating whale meat. (3) In response, the Fisheries
Agency of Japan has set up its own company to try and sell the
'chopped and boxed' by-products of its science to schools,
hospitals and restaurants.
Despite the tensions at the IWC it is clear that the Fisheries
Agency of Japan do not enjoy the support of the Japanese people. In
a new poll commissioned by Greenpeace from the Nippon research
Center, 77% of respondents said they did not support whaling on the
high seas, this means they do not support the so-called scientific
research programme in either the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary or
the North Pacific. (4) "It is clear that the people of Japan do not
support their Fisheries Agency's drive to bring about a return to
commercial whaling. The people of Japan have no appetite for the
Fisheries Agency of Japan's sushi science," said Rattenbury. "The
whale hunt is bankrupt on all counts: politically, financially,
morally, ecologically and scientifically. For twenty years the
Government of Japan has kept the whaling fleet on life support
under the guise of science, its time to face the fact that the
whaling industry is dead in the water. It is time to stop the
hunt," concluded Rattenbury.
For further information, contact
For further information contact the team in StKitts:
Mike Townsley, Greenpeace Communications, +31 621 296 918 (m)
Shane Rattenbury, Greenpeace Oceans Campaign Head, +31646177538 (m)
John Frizell, Greenpeace IWC Delegation Head, +447801212999 (m)
video available from Greenpeace International Video Desk +31653504721
Photos available from Greenpeace International Photo Desk +31653819121 or +31653819255
Notes to Editor
(1) The return to the Southern Ocean will bring full circle the most ambitious ship expedition Greenpeace has ever undertaken. Defending Our Oceans is a 15-month expedition to highlight the range of threats to the
oceans and calling for a network of marine reserves covering 40% of the world’s oceans. It began in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary in November 2005 and has since exposed pirate fishing in West Africa, shown the benefits
of ‘no take’ zones in the whale watching waters of the Azores and is currently exposing the critical state of tuna stocks in the Mediterranean.
Check out oceans.greenpeace.org">http://oceans.greenpeace.org">oceans.greenpeace.org
Over the 73 days from November 20th 2005, 57 crew from over 20 countries onboard the Greenpeace ships MY Esperanza and Arctic Sunrise travelled 14,500 nautical miles, spent 28 days in contact with the whaling fleet, including 12 days when no whales where killed. Sadly, and despite saving a
great many whales by blocking the harpooners shot, they witnessed the brutal death of at least 123 minke whales.
(2) Japan’s Alternate Commissioner to the IWC, Akira Nakamae, Deputy Director of the Fisheries Agency of Japan. IWC 57, Ulsan, South Korea, 2005.
(3) Along with other environmental organisations like the Environmental Investigations Agency and the Humane Society of the US, Greenpeace launched a consumer campaign last year calling on Nissui, a one-third shareholder in Kyodo Senpaku, which owns and operates the whaling fleet to use its influence to end whaling. Emails where also sent to two of the world's largest seafood companies with links to the whaling business: Gortons in the US, wholly owned by Nissui, and Sealord in New Zealand, 50 percent owned by Nissui. Globally, Greenpeace Ocean Defenders sent a total of 100,000 emails to Nissui-related companies. In addition, Nissui lost seafood supply contracts in Argentina after activists placed stickers denouncing whaling on Nissui products in supermarkets and sent more than 20,000 emails. Before the fleet had even finished the hunt, Nissui and the other companies behind the whaling fleet announced they were pulling out.
(4) See">http://www.greenpeace.or.jp/press/reports/q_whaling_eng.pdf">See the report here.