Sea Shepherd on the move

[Guest guest]

July 14, 2001

SEA SHEPHERD NEWS RELEASE

 

OCEAN WARRIOR EN ROUTE TO ANTIGUA

Activists arriving Monday; urge break with Japan at Whaling Commission

meeting

 

The Ocean Warrior out of Miami, flagship of the Sea Shepherd Conservation

Society, the world's most aggressive marine wildlife conservation

organization, will be mooring off St. Johns late Monday. Its volunteer

international eco-activist crew comes with a message for Antigua: Stop

selling the lives of whales in exchange for Japanese development aid.

 

Like Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, St. Kitts &

St. Nevis, Antigua has been voting with Japan on whale hunting proposals and

against whale sanctuaries since it joined the International Whaling

Commission at Japan's behest. The IWC meets in London starting July 23,

where Antigua is likely to once again vote against a proposed South Pacific

whale sanctuary - much desired by South Pacific states, but opposed by

Japan - and in favor of the " Revised Management Scheme, " re-authorizing

commercial whale hunting.

 

" Virtually every country in the Eastern Caribbean has been bought by Japan, "

said Ocean Warrior Captain and Sea Shepherd President Paul Watson. " Every

year since the early 1990s, Antigua and five other islands have sent

representatives to the IWC to vote in favor of killing whales. Over that

same span of time, the Japanese government has lavished more than $100

million in aid on fishery and development programs for those countries, and

has paid their representatives' IWC membership fees and hotel bills at each

meeting. "

 

Sea Shepherd notes the irony that Antigua could afford to make the break

with Japan's whale hunt bribes if it developed a whale watch tour business.

But at last year's IWC meeting, Antigua's commissioner declared whale

watching a form of " economic imperialism. "

 

" If Antigua looked at the numbers, we think that tune would change pretty

quick, " said Captain Watson. " Nine million people go whale watching every

year, and spend over one billion dollars in the countries that offer it.

This is an industry with an 18% annual growth rate. On the down side, the

longer Antigua takes bribes from Japan to the detriment of the whales, the

more widely publicized that fact will become, and the greater the likelihood

that their tourism economy will suffer as a direct result. Antigua needs to

start hearing what the world is saying. "

 

The new administration in St. Vincent & the Grenadines is currently

reviewing that nation's policy on whaling at the IWC. Sea Shepherd urges

Antigua to do the same.

 

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

22774 Pacific Coast Hwy.

Malibu, CA 90265

Tel.(310) 456-1141

Fax.(310) 456-2488

http://www.seashepherd.org

seashepherd