Biteback: Commercial whaling

Written by staff reporter Thursday, 14 May 2009 00:00

A week before the last government was thrown out, in the wake of the collapse of the country’s banking system, it announced a five year whaling programme. It was expected that this interim government would cancel that, as it badly affects their tourism. However, an advertising campaign claiming that whaling will employ huge numbers of people, and is a way out of their problems, has meant that the weak interim government is frightened to go against public opinion. It has been repeatedly shown that income from whale watching tourists far outstrips any gains from whaling, so email Iceland’s Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it explaining that your conscience would not allow you to visit while the whaling continues.

The Icelandic announcement has brought protest from governments across the world, including ours, and encouragingly both Waitrose and Marks and Spencer have voiced strong criticism of the decision and have sent teams to make sure that none of their fish imports are in any way connected with the whaling. If any link is discovered they have said they will cancel those orders. We have come a long way when supermarkets become leading critics of environmentally damaging policies and I think that both of these companies should be encouraged. Email them at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and www.marksandspencer.com/gp/contact

Japan continues to pedal its policy of going into the Southern Whale Sanctuary to kill upwards of 850 whales, all under the cowardly lie of ‘scientific whaling’. Even the International Whaling Commission didn’t mince its words, recalling that: ‘The Commission has repeatedly requested Contracting Parties to refrain from issuing special permits for research involving the killing of whales within the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, it has expressed deep concern at continuing lethal research within the Southern Ocean Sanctuary, and has also recommended that scientific research involving the killing of cetaceans should only be permitted where critically important research needs are addressed.’ Pretty clear eh? It continued: ‘The IWC is convinced that the aims of JARPA 11 (the Japanese Antarctic Ocean programme) do not address critically important research needs and calls upon the government of Japan to suspend indefinitely the lethal aspects of JARPA 11 conducted within the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary’.’

Attempts to alert the Japanese people that the whaling programme is in fact being largely paid for by their taxpayers, and that the whole thing is a sham, has put two Japanese Greenpeace members in jail. The ‘Tokyo Two’ intercepted a parcel of whale meat heading for the black market and handed it in to the authorities. Instead of publicising this proof of the corruption involved, the authorities immediately arrested them for theft and they remain under house arrest. Their trial now being postponed until May, which just happens to coincide with the next IWC meeting.

To protest their detention sign the petition at www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/oceans/whaling/ending-japanese-whaling/arrest-me-japan

The Sea Shepherds (www.seashepherd.org) have been active in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary trying to disrupt the Japanese whaling fleet. They were very successful, resulting in many ‘whaling days’ being lost. The Japanese government has been particularly upset by an Animal Planet series called Whale Wars and the second part was being filmed by the Sea Shepherds during this season. The Japanese government publicly told the Australian government that they should stop the Sea Shepherds landing, and were then embarrassed when the Australians refused. However, some deal was done because when the Sea Shepherd’s ship, The Steve Irwin, landed in Hobart it was boarded by the police with a warrant to seize ‘all raw and edited video footage, photographs, logbooks and other material’.

Australia has always been strongly anti-whaling and so considerable pressure must have been exerted from Japan (their largest trading partner) to make this happen. Somehow, knowing the Sea Shepherds’ methods, I don’t think this will stop the second part of Whale Wars going ahead, complete with all the necessary footage. It will be good for the world to see just what the Japanese get up to in the one place whales are supposed to be safe.