Outrage over Japan's plan to slaughter humpback whales

Last Update: Sunday, June 18, 2006. 6:13am (AEST)

Greenpeace to continue anti-whaling action in Southern Ocean


Greenpeace says it will continue action in the Southern Ocean against whaling ships. [file photo] (ABC)

Greenpeace will return to the Southern Ocean later this year as part of its ongoing campaign to stop Japan's whaling activities.

The group says it welcomes yesterday's results at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in the Caribbean, which saw Japan fail in its bid to introduce secret ballots and to end the commission's conservation work with dolphins.

But Greenpeace spokesman Danny Kennedy says while the results are positive, it is not a time to be complacent.

"Further steps need to be taken both at the International Whaling Commission and outside it, which is why Greenpeace has announced we'll be going to the Southern Ocean this summer to take the Arctic Sunrise to interfere again with the hunt," he said.

"Because it's a hunt, it's not a scientific program whatsoever and we need to stop them from killing these whales."

Japan resolution

Meanwhile, Japan is believed to be preparing a resolution that could call for Greenpeace to be stripped of its observer status at the IWC. ...<cont>

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200606/s1665539.htm

I can't believe the rest of the group caved like that! This recent series of events is making me crazy all over again, especially after it was looking so good for the whales.

fm wrote-



Is it now? That's amazing. I'm gobsmacked.

Which "Creationist pals" have you in mind. Have you not noticed that Creationists avoid me like the plague. It's you they like not me. Name me one if only to show that you can sometimes put evidence up to back up your ridiculous assertions. Not one has come to my notice so far.

If you wish to specialise in cheapskate smears try it on the those who are less intelligent than yourself.

I never said gasoline was a problem from an economic point of view.It's a class problem.

If I was going to live for a million years I would bet whales will outlast humans.I would lay the odds on it.

The Japanese have been busily bribing a number of small, struggling nations to support their side, k. I'm just relieved that they didn't have their way, as we'd all expected. But it's certainly frustrating & fret inducing, I grant you, this year by year farce. So the whales have received a temporary (sort of! But it could be worse!) reprieve. In the meantime Japan is threatening to leave the IWC & will continue "scientific whaling", anyway. There's got to be a better way to protect the whales. <sigh> I'm completely with Greenpeace on this.

The numbers Japan is allowing for slaughter are outrageous.

Yes.

And check out what they're actually doing with the whale flesh, a few posts back, k. Hot dogs & burgers from whale meat? (To convince teenagers to eat the stuff) That, of course, is simply good, commercial use of the by-products of "scientific whaling"!

:wink:

What is most scurrilous is what Miss Olga is pointing out--they don't even have an already existant market for whale meat, and are trying to create one. It's just disgusting.

and they have some really lame use for the baleen. Its not like we couldnt duplicate baleen with some kind of spun plastic or Goretex.

Baleen, farmer?
I'm not sure I know what that is.

The finny whales dont have teeth, they have these rows of giant comb like filters in their mouths, sorta like bar screen on a sewage plant. The water gets sucke in the whales mouth and then with their mouths full, they shoot the water back through these big sheets of baleen and the baleen traps all the little critters like a fishing drag net. Baleen is really fine comb like material; and the Japanese wanted to market it for fine screen filters for water traetment and paint formulating. The idea is total crap cause we have 100 years of making tiny filtration equipment, we dont need to go and say that weve discovered this "new" material out of a whales mouth. Thats total crap . SAme thing with ambergris from Sperm whales. We dont need this stuff anymore for musk .

Thanks, farmer. I learn something new every day here!

Yes, as I discovered in my Googling investigation of ambergris, synthetic substitutes are more often used these day in perfume production, for ethical reasons. I understand that there's a US ban on it's use. Though, as I mentioned in my post to hamburger, ambergris was mentioned constantly on all the links on Japanese incense production.

Baleen plates.

Edit (I should have read all of your post fm you obviously know that)

yeh, youre right, msolga, if you look them up on google, use the phrase baleen plates, not combs. cuz they did make ladies hair combs out of baleen in the 19th century

Last Update: Sunday, June 18, 2006. 11:39am (AEST)

Japan loses pro-whaling vote

Japan has fallen short again in efforts to gain majority support for its campaign to loosen international anti-whaling regulations.

Japan, which has obeyed a 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling but uses a loophole to hunt minke whales for scientific research, proposed that the International Whaling Commission (IWC) allow Japanese coastal communities to whale near shore.

Passage of the measure would have required 75 per cent of the 70-nation body and was not expected.

Japan, however, had sought a "moral victory" from a simple majority, which would have been the first time in two decades a whaling quota gained more than 50 per cent support in the IWC. But it fell one vote short.

The defeat comes on the heels of crushing setbacks Japan suffered in two votes on Friday.

A simple majority would have been "big news", Japan's assistant commissioner, Joji Morishita, said before the vote. Afterward he lauded what he saw as a "50-50" result.

"It's not an honest majority," countered Kitty Block, a lawyer with Humane Society International.

"It's not moral how they brought the simply majority," she said, referring to claims Japan uses foreign aid to persuade Pacific, Caribbean and African states to back its pro-whaling stance - a charge Japan denies and one sometimes also applied to anti-whaling countries such as Australia and New Zealand.

Japan had hoped at this year's June 16-20 IWC annual meeting in the Caribbean country of St Kitts and Nevis to have secured a majority for the first time since the ban on commercial whaling was imposed two decades ago.

But it failed to push through two pro-whaling votes on Friday. The third defeat was likely to increase its frustration with the agency, which is credited with saving the great whales from being hunted to extinction. ... <cont>

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200606/s1665641.htm

PHEW!
But far too close for comfort!
What now?

yeh, at least they didnt invade the countries to insure their votes.

Do you have a list of attendees and member nations of the IWC?

Nope, farmer. Doing a search now. You'll probably beat me to it!

The membership list is included here, farmer. See the graph about halfway down the page. Though this list may well be out of date. New members can be signed up anytime if they meet the criteria. They can (& have been) also bribed to join.

http://www.iwcoffice.org/commission/iwcmain.htm

SWITZERLAND? WTF? where do they hide their navy?