Action Alert - Tell your Japanese Embassy to End Research Whaling

On July 28, 2011, Japan’s leading English-language newspaper, The Yomiuri Shimbun reported that the nation’s Fisheries Agency is weighing the possibility of ending research whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

The Japanese government has historically held fast to a research whaling agenda.  However, for the first time ever, a new report issued by the Fisheries Agency's review committee on research whaling in the Antarctic Ocean includes opinions on both sides of the issue.

The report follows an abbreviated 2010-2011 research whaling season courtesy of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.  On February 16, Captain Paul Watson and crew celebrated a victory in the Southern Ocean after successfully preventing the Japanese whaling fleet from attaining its quota.  Sea Shepherd estimates that approximately 900 whales were saved as a result of the non-profit’s direct action campaign, Operation No Compromise.

In April, the Japan Fisheries Agency committee heard and compiled expert opinions regarding the future of research whaling.  A majority opinion called for a continuation of research whaling based on international treaty.  Proponents stated that whaling should continue “without yielding to heinous interference."  On the other side of the debate, a minority opinion suggested ending research whaling once and for all, “If we cannot gain understanding on the research whaling in the international community, we should scale it down or halt it.”

Given this development, Save Misty the Dolphin encourages members of our community to contact your Japanese Embassy and applaud a Fisheries Agency report that considers a halt to research whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Santuary.  

NOW IS THE TIME TO REQUEST THE AMBASSADOR TO URGE THE FISHERIES AGENCY OF JAPAN TO FOLLOW  THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE MINORITY REPORT.  THE TIME TO END JAPANESE RESEARCH WHALING IN THE SOUTHERN OCEAN IS NOW!  Thank you.  Please help us spread the word.

To locate your Japanese Embassy, click on this link: http://www.mofa.go.jp/about/emb_cons/mofaserv.html

An Open Letter to the International Whaling Commission

Dr. Simon Brockington
Secretary
The International Whaling Commission
The Red House,
135 Station Road,
Impington,
Cambridge,
Cambridgeshire CB24 9NP, UK.
Tel: +44 (0) 1223 233 971
Fax: +44 (0) 1223 232 876
email: secretariat@iwcoffice.org

Dear Dr. Brockingon,

As the dates of the 63rd meeting of the International Whaling Commission approach, July 4-14, 2011, in the Channel Islands, we are writing to urge the IWC to take strong and decisive action to fully protect whales AND dolphins.

The slaughter of whales and dolphins for commercial, scientific or cultural purposes is inhumane and highly inconsistent with worldwide efforts to protect our planet’s oceans.  Numerous reports have proven that whale meat is highly toxic with mercury.  Furthermore, the March 11 tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan resulted in radioactive water being dumped into the sea.  According to a June 15 article published by the Associated Press, two Minke whales caught off of the coast of Japan were found to have traces of radioactive cesium.  In the interest of public health, it is time to end the international consumption of whale and dolphin meat.

Following the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling, the IWC has issued Japan, Norway and Iceland permits for scientific whaling.  We strongly question the merits of this practice.  Credible researchers around the world have managed to find ways to study whales without the use of lethal methodologies.  Additionally, the fact that the whale meat from the alleged “research” is sold commercially further underscores the need to end research whaling.  According to Darren Kindleysides of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, “Japan’s 20 years of “scientific whaling” has delivered thousands of dead whales and next to no useful knowledge of the whales they “study”. The meat is packaged and sold in the fish markets in Japan. This has more to do with sushi than science.”

Looking ahead to your upcoming meeting, we also note the questionable history of the government of Japan with regards to buying votes from international delegates to support the Japanese whaling agenda.  The June 13, 2010 Sunday Times investigative article, “Flights, girls and cash buy Japan Whaling votes” http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7149086.ece uncovered a wealth of improprieties conducted by representatives of the Japanese delegation.  We request that investigations be undertaken and that appropriate and harsh sanctions be levied against the guilty parties.  Such behavior simply should NOT be allowed within the confines of an international regulatory body.

Having observed the annual Taiji dolphin drive hunt from September 1, 2010 to the close of the season in March 2011, we furthermore call on the IWC to afford much needed protections to dolphins.  The drive fishery method employed by the Taiji Fisheries Union is among the most cruel practices known to mankind.  Like whales, dolphins are intelligent beings.  They live in pods and nurse their young.  We have witnessed pods of dolphins herded into the cove and then slowly and painfully slaughtered over the course of many hours.  Calves swim in the blood of their mothers and fathers.  This nightmare simply must end.

We call on the members of the 63rd International Whaling Commission to fully PROTECT all whales and dolphins.  The time to END whaling and dolphin hunting on planet Earth is NOW.