If you’ve seen “The Cove,” then you should be pretty familiar with some of the despicable tactics that Japan uses to create a pro-Japan voting block at the International Whaling Commission. In the film, the producers outline how Japan essentially bribes 3rd world and developing countries into joining the IWC and voting with Japan to pass or to block certain measures.
A total of 17 developing African nations have joined the IWC since 2001. These nations frequently support Japan’s laughable (at best) assertion that declining fish stock in the Earth’s oceans is due to the fact that too many whales and dolphins are eating all the fish.
Members of the opposition government in Australia are urging environment minister Peter Garrett to form an international coalition that will act against Japan under the International Law of the Sea. But for now, Garrett has offered to meet with Ghana and the other African nations to outline Australia’s position that the IWC can be reformed into a better conservation body.
Japan and South Korea are the only countries allow for the commercial sale of “bycatch” whale products.
According to Scott Baker of Oregon State University, “DNA analysis of whale-meat products sold in Japanese markets suggests that the number of whales actually killed through this ‘bycatch whaling’ may be equal to that killed through Japan’s scientific whaling program – about 150 annually from each source.”
Along with Vimoksalehi Lukoscheck of the University of California-Irvine, Baker told the International Whaling Commission at its most recent conference that “46 percent of the minke whale products they examined in Japanese markets originated from a coastal population, which has distinct genetic characteristics, and is protected by international agreements.”
In past years, Japan has reported as few as 19 minke whales killed in a single year through bycatch. According to Baker, the price of an adult minke whale can reach as high as $100,000, and he says, “Given these financial incentives, you have to wonder how many of these whales are, in fact, killed intentionally.”
In 2008, Korean police broke up an illegal whaling operation in Ulsan, where they reportedly seized 50 tons of minke whale meat.
To almost no one’s surprise, the IWC meeting this week in Portugal turned out to be a complete waste of time. In fact, so much nothing was accomplished that the meeting actually wrapped a day early. The two sides - nations opposed to commercial whaling and pro-whaling nations (led by Japan, Norway, and Iceland) - agreed only to continue to disagree, giving themselves another twelve months to negotiate some sort of compromise.
There's a one-in-three chance that this whale was pregnant before the Japanese killed it
Japanese government data made public at the International Whaling Commission meeting this week revealed that a large number of whales were pregnant or lactating when they were killed by Japanese research vessels. In the 2008-2009 season, the Japanese killed 679 whales. 304 of those whales killed were female, and 192 of those were pregnant when they died. Four were lactating, which means they left behind calves that starved to death.
In other news from the IWC meeting. As predicted, no compromise has been reached at the summit of whaling nations. Japan and Australia have both cranked up the level of their rhetoric, and it’s starting to seem more likely than ever that the IWC could possibly dissolve. All they’ve managed to do is to extend compromise talks for another 12 months.
The IWC has spent the last 12 months exploring compromises that would allow relaxed restrictions on commercial whale hunting. Neither pro-whaling nor anti-whaling nations are likely to find this deal acceptable, and no significant votes are expected to be taken during this conference. The best anyone seems to be hoping for is another 12 months of stalling and failed compromising. The worst case scenario is that more and more nations bail on the IWC entirely and decide to regulate their own whaling industries.
Basically, anti-whaling western nations (USA and EU), plus Australia, seem to have a political and cultural mandate to end entirely commercial whaling. It seems to be a matter of debate whether or not these countries could call a successful vote to place further restrictions on whaling. Some commentators don’t believe they have enough votes to get the three-quarters majority needed to enact major policy change. However, others, like Greenpeace, disagree and think that the time is now.
Way back in early March, Hayden Panettiere and The Whaleman Foundation launched the above widget and announced they planned to submit 1M signatures to the IWC at its summer meeting in Portugal.
That meeting is in five days, and so far they’ve only got just over 160k signatures. Doesn’t look good.
Sign this thing and help these people out. She’s put her money where her mouth is. She’s done more than put her face on a widget. She made a sexy video blog against whaling. She did a press tour in Australia against whaling. And she took part in a highly publicized protest in Japan during the filming of “The Cove.”
Today's Japanese hunt whales the way their ancestors did, in giant metal boats and with harpoons tipped with explosives
During the Bush administration, the United Stated (known to some as “America”) was not in the habit of expressing open opposition to Japan’s controversial “scientific” whaling program. But that’s starting to change now that Obama’s in charge.
In a recent statement to congress, the White House and the NOAA said that the longstanding International Whaling Commission moratorium on commercial whaling was still a necessary conservation measure. They went on to add that, “The Administration also strongly opposes lethal scientific whaling and considers it unnecessary in modern whale conservation and management.”
Additionally, the Bush appointee currently heading the IWC, William Hogarth, was recently grilled by congressional Democrats who accuse him of doing too little to stop Japanese whaling. In 2007, Japan agreed only not to expand it’s yearly “scientific” hunt in the Southern Ocean, and has since said it would only do that if granted commercial whaling rights in its coastal waters.
Opponents interpret these attempts at compromise as ultimately giving Japan what it really wants - a license to kill whales and to sell whale meat.
Jessica Simpson and Billy Ray Cyrus will be performing at Texas Sea World on May 9th. They probably have whales there. (Perez Hilton)
WB picks up script for “Everybody Loves Whales.” It’s about a true story about whales and it’s written by the guys who wrote “Shaggy Dog.” (Reuters UK)
If there really are 32 pro-whaling nations planning to vote as a unified block at the upcoming IWC meeting, then the IWC needs to redefine it’s definition of nation. (Sydney Morning Herald)
South Korea said that it, like Japan, has impoverished coastal fishing communities which could benefit from whaling quotas. Conservationists say that minke whales in South Korean coastal waters already face extinction because of “by-catching” (i.e., whales being “accidentally” caught in fishing nets, then sold for food). And there’s a general fear among anti-whaling IWC nations and conservation groups that even more countries are likely to resume whaling if Japan is allowed to hunt for whales close to home.
The Steve Irwin Docked in Hobart (source: Witty lama)
Japan Claims They Are The Victim of “Eco-terrorism”
This Italian blog claims that Japan showed a video at this week’s conference called “Escalating Violence against Research Vessels by Eco-activists.” The Institute of Cetacean Research - the Japanese agency which oversees the country’s “scientific whaling” - has posted many videos on it’s web site under the header “Illegal Harassment and Terrorism Against ICR Research.” One rather dramatic video does show the Steve Irwin apparently ramming a Japanese vessel marked “Research” as it drags a dead, or dying, whale through the ocean. (click here to download)
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