Whalers blow whistle on meat racket
By North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy
Updated Tue Jun 8, 2010 11:08am AEST
The whistleblowers claim some crewmen made a fortune from reselling the whale meat. (AFP: Kazuhiro Nogi, file photo)
Australia's bid to take Japan to the International Court of Justice over its so-called scientific whaling program may be about to get a boost.
Two former Japanese whalers have told the ABC's Foreign Correspondent program of systemic embezzlement by crewmen onboard the country's whaling ships.
Speaking for the first time, they say that crew members are taking what amounts to hundreds of kilograms of prime cuts of whale meat, either for personal consumption or to sell on to restaurants.
One whistleblower, who asks to be called Kujira San - Japanese for "Mr Whale" - says this practice even extends to the body in charge of the scientific whaling program.
Kujira San, a former crewman on Japan's whaling fleet flagship the Nisshin Maru, says what he is revealing could get him killed because his former shipmates do not tolerate those who break the code of silence.
"First, when the ship returns to Japan and arrives in the port, a transport truck is waiting. The crewmen will then pack the whale meat they stole into a cardboard box. One person carried off 500 to 600 kilograms," he said.
He claimed some crewmen made a fortune from reselling the meat.
These are explosive allegations which, if true, undermine much of Japan's claim that its whaling program is centred on scientific research.... <cont>
Whaling protesters demand release of Toyko Two
GEORGINA ROBINSON
June 9, 2010 - 12:14PM/SMH
The Tokyo 2 ... Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki. Photo: Greenpeace
Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki thought they'd cracked wide open Japan's secretive whaling industry.
The activist pair had snatched from a shipping depot a 23-kilogram case of salted whale meat cuts smuggled off the country's flagship scientific whaling vessel, the Nisshin Maru.
Sato and Suzuki reported their find to police and called a media conference, intending to expose what they alleged was a smuggling ring operating within Japan's scientific research program.
But a month later the pair, now known as the Tokyo Two, were arrested and detained for 26 days, during which time they were tied to chairs and interrogated, Sato claims.
They were eventually charged with theft and trespass and are now facing 18-month jail terms.
An official investigation into the men's claims was started but later dropped on the grounds that the meat was meant as "souvenirs" and were not sold, Greenpeace says.
The case has enraged anti-whaling activists across the world.
Dozens of people gathered in Montreal, Canada, yesterday with a petition urging Sato and Suzuki's release.
Similar protests are planned for Vancouver, Germany, the United States, India, China and New Zealand, Greenpeace said.
Commercial whaling has been banned worldwide since 1986, but Japan justifies its annual hunts as "scientific research," while not hiding the fact that the meat is later sold in shops and restaurants.
The alleged theft took place in 2008 at a delivery service depot in Japan's northern Aomori prefecture.
Sato, 33, and Suzuki, 43, have not denied taking the box to use as evidence that whale meat from the state-funded expeditions was being embezzled.
They alleged the salted parcels had been sent to crew members for personal consumption or sale.
) :AUSTRALIA has launched unprecedented international legal action against Japan to halt its annual whale hunts in the Southern Ocean.
Announcing the legal challenge yesterday, Environment Minister Peter Garrett said Australia had exhausted all diplomatic avenues to stop Southern Ocean whaling, and had been left with no option but to take legal action in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.
Japan whaling bribery claims 'common knowledge'
By Felicity Ogilvie
Updated Mon Jun 14, 2010 3:24pm AEST
Legal action: Australia is taking Japan to court over its whaling in the Southern Ocean. (Australian Customs Service, file photo)
A conservation activist says an investigation into claims that Japan bribes small nations for their support on whaling is confirmation of what has been common knowledge for a long time.
Two reporters from Britain's Sunday Times newspaper posed as the lobbyists of a fictional Swiss billionaire and set out to buy votes at next week's International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting.
Six countries told the reporters they were willing to consider their offer, but the reporters were told they would need to better the aid the countries are already getting from the Japanese.
Tanzania's IWC commissioner is recorded saying that as well as aid, politicians from his country are flown to Japan where they are offered prostitutes.
Geoffrey Nanyaro told the undercover reporters he has never used Japanese prostitutes.
"As a Christian, I live by the Bible, so I never indulge in such [activities]," he said.
Mr Nanyaro says when he visits Japan he is put up in a five-star hotel, and women offering massages often call his room.
"They start by saying you know, do you want massaging, you know, it will be free massaging, you know. Are you not alone there?"
Nicola Beynon from Humane Society International says the undercover investigation adds weight to what environmental groups have long suspected.
"It has been common knowledge for a long time that a number of countries that vote in favour of commercial whaling at the IWC are not actually voting because they genuinely want to see a return to commercial whaling, but they are voting because they are beholden to Japan and Japan's very generous fisheries aid," she said.
"This is confirming what has been common knowledge for a long time and there has been very few occasions where we have had proof of it."
Morocco meeting
The Japanese government is yet to comment on the bribery allegations, which come just a week before the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meets in Morocco.
The meeting will decide whether Japan wins approval for limited commercial whaling.
The decision is a critical one for the Australian Government as well, because if the proposal goes ahead it would destroy the Federal Government's legal case against the Japanese.
Every vote will be crucial. On the table is a compromise deal that could see a return to commercial whaling in exchange for an end to the killing of whales for so-called scientific research.
The compromise is the brainchild of the IWC chairman Cristian Maquieria, but he is sick and will not be at the meeting.
Ms Beynon is sure the deal will be debated without the chairman.
"I think it is going to come to a negotiation over the quotas, so if the quotas are big enough then Japan, Norway and Iceland will want the proposal," she said.
"They will be telling the countries who vote that they have been coercing ... to vote for it and then if those countries combined with some countries who just want a compromise.
"They are tired of the issue. They think if they support this compromise then the issue will die down for them politically. If those countries combine with the pro-whalers then we could see it going through."
Countries that are considering the compromise include the USA
You know, Krumple, at the moment I feel so despondent about the possible/likely outcome of this IWC conference that I can't tell if you're half serious or not.
Japan launches whaling fleet 10 days from vote
By Sarah Clarke
ABC NEWS online
Updated Thu Jun 10, 2010 4:00pm AEST
The whaling commission meets in just over a week. (File photo) (www.customs.gov.au)
Conservation groups have condemned Japan for starting its summer whaling hunt in the north-west Pacific less than 10 days before the annual whaling commission meets.
A Japanese whaling fleet consisting of three harpoon and two research ships left port yesterday to hunt 160 whales before returning in August.
Their quota is to kill 100 sei whales, 50 bryde's whales and 10 sperm whales before returning in late August.
Nicola Beynon from Humane Society International says it is a provocative move, given countries are currently negotiating a compromise deal on the future of whaling.
"Generally their scientific whaling has been against the spirit of the negotiations for a compromise and this hunt like their Antarctic hunt is unacceptable," she said.
"To be doing it when governments are trying to reach a compromise over the future of whaling it is just adding insult to injury.
"It's just serving to put pressure - undue pressure - on governments to capitulate to their demands."
The International Whaling Commission meets in Morocco in just over a week and countries will be asked to vote on a new deal which could overturn a 24-year moratorium on commercial whaling
