Greenpeace action against Japanese whaling in Southern Ocean.
Worldwide condemnation of Japan's "scientific" whaling began
this week in the countdown to the next International Whaling
Commission meeting in Shimonoseki, Japan. Greenpeace activists from
Argentina to New Zealand (1) gathered at Japanese embassies to
deliver their protests in the form of whale meat boxes, petitions,
letters, postcards, e-mails and faxes. Copied from the originals
used by the Japanese whaling fleet,(2) the boxes highlight the
commercial reality of so-called "scientific" whaling. Whales hunted
in the name of science are destined for the tables of restaurants
and the shelves of supermarkets as a delicacy despite a diminishing
market in Japan.
The protesters are calling on the Government of Japan to halt
its Fisheries Agency from pursuing its present scientific whaling
activities.(3)
In Berlin, Greenpeace unloaded truckloads of whale meat boxes
and stacked them in front of the Japanese embassy. Leaving no
doubts as to the meaning of the boxes, a three meter tall box with
a minke whale head and its tail projecting from each end capped the
display. Yesterday, in Austria, 80 protestors sporting white
uniforms and white painted faces shouldered their burden of whale
tails and whale meat boxes on sticks and stood in silent vigil in
front of the Japanese embassy.
In Tokyo, a petition signed by marine and cetacean biologists
from around the world calling upon the government to end its
scientific whaling was handed over to the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs by Japanese protestors. Among the eminent signatories were,
Dr. David Suzuki and Prof. Hal Whitehead.(3) In Australia, there
was a solemn display of Japanese dancing by artists in white body
paint on a red carpet in front of the Japanese consulate in
Sydney.
In five weeks, the fate of the whales will be decided by a mix
of pro and anti-whaling countries at the IWC. The Fisheries Agency
has been packing the IWC with nations who have sold their votes in
return for foreign aid from Japan.(4) Should the Fisheries Agency
succeed in gaining a voting majority they will be able to expand
their present whaling activities and pave the way to overturning
the moratorium on commercial whaling and a return to factory ship
whaling of the kind that decimated populations in the past,(5)
overturn the Indian Ocean whale sanctuary, and restart commercial
trade with Norway and other countries which may also decide to
restart whaling.
As part of its push for the resumption of commercial whaling,
the Fisheries Agency has launched a high profile public relations
campaign using controversial and scientifically unsubstantiated
claims that there are too many whales and that they eat too much
fish.(6) In addition, they have been trying to boost the popularity
of eating whale meat among the Japanese by handing out free samples
despite the threat of toxic contamination.(7)
"It is highly irresponsible of the Fisheries Agency to try to
justify a return to commercial whaling by claiming that there are
too many whales eating too many fish," said John Frizell,
Greenpeace Oceans Campaigner. "The evidence is that overfishing by
humans is the cause of the present fisheries crises, not whales.
The Fisheries Agency is singlehandedly undermining the credibility
of the Japanese scientific community by making such outlandish
claims. They are becoming the laughingstock of other marine
biologists."(8)
Notes: 1) New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Austria, Spain, Argentina, Japan, Sweden, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, Switzerland, Chile, UK. 2) The whale meat boxes are replicas of the boxes used to carry the "research" off the Nisshin Maru factory ship. They have the Fisheries Agency's slogans on them: "More than 760,000 minke whales in the Antarctic--No problem catching 2000 Minkes", "Whale is important food for mankind in 21st century", "Whale is Healthy Food." 3) Professor Emeritus, Dr. David Suzuki, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, sustainable Development Research; Professor Hal Whitehead, Cetacean Biologist, Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, Canada. 4) In an interview broadcast on the Australian ABC TV in July 2001, a senior Japanese official of the Fisheries Agency, Mr. Masayuki Komatsu, described minke whales as “cockroaches of the sea”, and admitted that Japan saw development aid as a “major tool” in ensuring that key developing countries voted in favour of whaling at the IWC. 5) In February 2002, the Fisheries Agency announced that they will increase their quota of minke whales and added an endangered species, Sei whales, to their list to be hunted for scientific purposes 6) In a new twist on the Fisheries Agency's "whales eat too many fish" argument, a senior official of the Fisheries Agency, Mr. Joji Morishita, claims that there has been a ten-fold increase in the population of whales in the last five years causing them to beach themselves because of the lack of food. Asahi Shimbun, April 12, 2002, "Pity The Whales, Starving and Beaching Themselves." 7) "It is very surprising that the Japanese are encouraging the eating of whale meat with shoppers queuing for free samples of canned whale stew, deep-fried whale meat and blubber recipes in downtown Tokyo," Dr. Stone said, "Unfortunately, what these unsuspecting consumers probably received was a cocktail of toxins and contaminants that have made their way into our seas and oceans, particularly during the last 50 years." Parliamentary Secretary for the Antarctic, Dr. Sharman Stone, Media Release, 12 April 2002. 8) A recent Pew Oceans Commission determined that between 25 and 30 percent of the world's fish populations are overfished, while an additional 40 percent are "fully exploited" - meaning that additional pressure could result in their collapse. Pollution and oceanic temperature fluctuations have played a role in reducing some fisheries, but scientists increasingly concur that overfishing on a vast scale is the primary culprit." The San Francisco Chronicle, April 15, 2002, "Fishing Out the World's Oceans: Marine scientists worry that little is being done to stop the global crisis", by Glen Martin.