Feature story - 13 January, 2006
Our Argentine Ocean Defenders have hit Nissui in their pockets. Nissui own about one third of Kyodo Senpaku -- the people who run the Japanese whaling fleet. Our cyberactivists have convinced a major Nissui client in Argentina not to buy from a corporation involved in the killing of whales.
Despite the continued killing of whales by Japan there was some good news for whales when a Argentine seafood company canceled a contract with Nissui, a Japanese corporation involved in whaling.
As well as directly confronting the whaling fleet in the
Southern Oceanwe have been exposing howmany well-known companies
are linked to corporations involved inwhaling. Internationally we
have been focussing
on Gorton's,but in Argentina the focus is on companies that do
business with one ofthe corporations most closely linked to whaling
in Japan, Nissui.
Nissui has Argentine subsidiaries that operate freezer trawlers,
one ofwhich is a surimi (type of minced fish) processor, which is
sold inArgentina, Uruguay and Japan.
A popular seafood company in Argentina, Pesquera Santa Elena was
usingNissui fish in its products. So we targeted Santa Elena to ask
them tostop buying from Nissui and make it clear that whaling is
bad forbusiness.
In just 2 days over 21,000 cyberactivists contacted the company
anddownloaded stickers to place on Santa Elena products in super
markets,to highlight that the company was implicated in the killing
of whales.
Remarkably quickly the president of Santa Elena was sitting at
thetable with us to negotiate. Faced with the possible damage to
thecompanies public image from being linked to whaling it was
anapparently easy decision to make.
Last week, Greenpeace Argentina got a signed commitment from
thepresident of Santa Elena not to buy any more surimi from Nissui.
Thecompany even committed to donate about US$60,000 to an
organisationworking on whale conservation if they ever violate the
agreement.
So one big client less for Nissui, and we are pressing other
companiesto follow suit. Maybe Gorton's can learn from Santa
Elena's goodexample? In Argentina we are now focussing on other
companies that buyfrom Nissui.
Take action
Stand up to make a difference for the whales - Tell Gorton's and Nissui that their customers do not support whaling!
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