Tag Archives: Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary

Whale peace, not whale wars, needed

The recent draft “Peace Plan”, developed by a group of 12 member countries of the International Whaling Commission, for sanction and approval at its next meeting in June in Morocco, should be supported as a “realistic compromise”, says South Africa’s doyen of whale and dolphin conservation, Nan Rice, of the Dolphin Action and Protection Group, reports the Cape Argus.

Rice was commenting on the draft plan to allow controlled commercial whaling for the next ten years, as it would reduce the number of whales that Japan, Norway and Iceland would kill collectively, compared to the current ruling, which allows these countries to kill whales for “scientific purposes”.   She did state, however, that as long as whaling countries can make money out of whaling, it would be impossible to stop them from killing whales completely.

Greenpeace, an international environmental activist group, has criticised the peace plan, saying that it is not strict enough, and does not indicate any attempt to ultimately stop whaling in the whale sanctuary, and it still allows the fin whale, an endangered species, to be killed.   Restricted commercial whaling would allow the Japanese to sell whale meat for human consumption in Japan.

However, the “Peace Plan” includes a proposal for a Southern Ocean whale sanctuary, scrapping the ‘scientific’ whaling loophole used by the Japanese in the main, the reduction in the number of whales caught in the ten year period, and a restructuring of the Commission, all of which are positive aspects, according to Greenpeace.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com

Whale wars in Antarctic

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an activist whale protection agency, launched a full-on attack against the Japanese whalers in Australian Antarctic waters, including launching rotten butter bombs at the Japanese harpoon whaling vessel the Yushin Maru No 2.   The attack on Friday had to be cut short due to unfavourable weather conditions, but has stopped the Japanese whaling activity for the time being.

The Japanese fleet is whaling in Australian waters, despite an order of the Australian court for the Japanese to cease and desist from killing whales in Australian waters.

Commercial whaling in the Southern Ocean is illegal.  The Japanese are undertaking commercial whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary under the guise of scientific research, for which provision is made by the International Whaling Commission.

Whale wars

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is to go to battle against Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary in the Antarctic for the fifth time, at the end of this month.

The Society’s founder Captain Paul Watson says :  “We intend to sink the Japanese fleet economically.  Our strategy is to prevent whales from being killed, to force the Japanese whalers to spend money on fuel without killing whales.     We will once again intervene against illegal Japanese whaling and once again we intend to save the lives of as many whales as we can with the resources available to us.   We have been the cause of the Japanese whaling fleet losing profits for three years in a  row.   We intend to make it a fourth year of red ink in the whaler’s books.”

Greenpeace, on the other hand, will not be fighting the whale wars in the Antarctic, focussing its energies amd monies instead on defending two of its activists for allegedly stealing whale meat bound for the black market, which could lead to a ten year imprisonment.  Greenpeace says the arrests are politically motivated.   The association is looking to lobby the Japanese from within Japan.   “We have saved whales every year we’ve been in the Antarctic, but we want to end whaling for good and we can’t do that if all our resources and energy are focused in the Southern Ocean” says a Greenpeace spokesperson.

Greenpeace and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society have managed to reduce the number of Minke whales the Japanese have caught for “lethal reserach”, from 850 to 551.