Japanese Whaling Fleet Sets Sail

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http://www.anc.org/wildlife/wildlife_article.cfm?identifier=2002_0630_whaling

 

Japanese Whaling Fleet Sets Sail

 

by David Milner

Posted on June 30, 2002

 

The Japanese Fisheries Ministry announced on Friday

that a fleet of four ships had departed from the port

of Shimonoseki to hunt 210 whales. The animals to be

killed include 100 minke, 50 Bryde's, 50 sei and 10

sperm whales.

 

Since an International Whaling Commission (IWC)

moratorium on all commercial whaling went into effect

in 1986, Japan has continued whaling under the pretext

of " scientific research. "

 

In May, representatives of 18 countries delivered a

formal diplomatic communiqué to the Japanese Foreign

Ministry in which they called on Japan to end its

" scientific " whaling activities.

 

The communiqué noted that Japan's whaling programs

" are not supported by the majority of (IWC) Scientific

Committee members and represent a continuously

increasing level and range of catches for what in

effect is a unilateral program carried out by a single

member state without the approval of the majority of

the IWC's other members. "

 

" Sending the fleet out now to kill more endangered

whales is a slap in the face of the international

community, " said International Fund for Animal Welfare

President Fred O'Regan. " Japan is undermining more

than two decades of whale conservation. It's

outrageous. "

 

Japan recently submitted a proposal to downlist the

protected status of minke and Bryde's whales at the

Convention on International Trade in Endangered

Species (CITES) meeting that will take place in

Santiago, Chile in November.

 

" They didn't get the result they wanted from the IWC,

so they are now forum shopping, trying to ignore one

international body and work through another — CITES, "

said O'Regan. " CITES member nations and the rest of

the global community should not fall prey to these

tactics. It is time for Japan to stop whaling now. "

 

Source

International Fund for Animal Welfare

© 2002 Animal News Center, Inc.

 

 

 

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