International Whaling Commission Update, SEA SHEPHERD CONSERVATION SOCIETY -

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SEA SHEPHERD CONSERVATION SOCIETY - International

Whaling Commission Update

Sun, 18 Jun 2006 16:35:01 -0700

 

SEA SHEPHERD CONSERVATION SOCIETY

 

 

 

International Whaling Commission Update

 

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JAPAN FAILS IN EFFORT TO

 

ABOLISH THE SOUTHERN OCEAN SANCTUARY

 

 

 

Japan has lost all four votes on resolutions brought

before the IWC including the important votes on

commercial whaling and the Southern Ocean Whale

Sanctuary.

 

 

 

This means that the whales have won out over the

whalers but only by the slimmest of margins.

 

 

 

But it does mean that the Sea Shepherd Conservation

Society can once again legally intervene against

illegal Japanese whaling activities in the Southern

Ocean Whale Sanctuary beginning in December of 2006.

 

 

 

Yesterday Japan failed to prevent the IWC from

discussing the conservation of small cetaceans. The

vote was 32 for the whales 30 for the whalers with 4

abstentions.

 

 

 

The 2nd vote was to introduce secret ballots. The vote

was 33 for the whales and 30 for the whalers with one

abstention.

 

 

 

Today Japan proposed a motion to allow Japanese

coastal communities to hunt whales. This would have

effectively circumvented the 1986 moratorium on

commercial whaling. The vote was 30 for Japan and 31

for the whales with 4 abstentions. The abstentions

were China, Solomon Islands, South Korea and Kiribati

– all expected to have voted for the whalers.

 

 

 

The vote prompted Joji Morishita, the Japanese

delegation's spokesman to say, " We are glad this is

not a secret vote. Japan will remember which countries

supported this proposal and which countries said no. "

 

 

 

Japan has given over $400 million in aid packages to

nations it has recruited into the International

Whaling Commission.

 

 

 

The 4th vote was a Japanese proposal to eliminate the

Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. It needed a two thirds

majority but Japan was hoping for a simple majority to

lend legitimacy to their illegal slaughter of whales

in Antarctic waters. The vote was 28 for Japan and 33

for the whales with four pro-whaling nations

abstaining.

 

 

 

Japan is furious. Conservationists are delighted.

 

 

 

" I can't understand it, " said Ben Bradshaw, Britain's

Minister for Local Environment, Marine and Animal

Welfare. " We are a great friend and ally of Japan in

almost every other field. And it is completely

inexplicable to me that Japan, Norway and Iceland

continue to push for a resumption of commercial

whaling.

 

" That hugely damages their international reputations, "

Bradshaw added. " The whale meat is stacking up in huge

freezers in these countries because they can't sell

it. I can only think that it is about a kind of

culturally nationalistic obstinacy that makes them

pursue this course. "

 

 

 

The IWC meetings will continue until Tuesday. The

victories on the 1st four resolutions bode well for

the rest of the meeting.

 

 

 

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is not

officially attending the meeting because Sea Shepherd

is the only organization officially banned from

attending IWC meetings because Sea Shepherd is the

only organization that directly intervenes against

illegal whaling. Sea Shepherd does have unofficial

representation.

 

 

 

“We don’t protest whaling,” said Sea Shepherd

International Director Jonny Vasic. “We intervene

against illegal whaling by acting to uphold the

international treaties and regulations protecting

whales.”

 

 

 

This year the Vice Chair of the IWC, Horst

Klienschmidt of South Africa and is now a director of

the Sea Shepherd in South Africa and a member of the

Sea Shepherd International Advisory Board.

 

 

 

Japan Wins By One Vote on Fifth Resolution

 

 

 

The fifth major vote was a moral victory for Japan but

it was non-binding because it required a two-thirds

majority.

 

 

 

Japan motioned for a non-binding pro-whaling

declaration by the IWC that declared that the whaling

ban was no longer valid and that whales are

responsible for the depletion of world wide fish

populations. Japan also declared nongovernmental

environmental organizations as a threat to whaling.

 

 

 

This motion passed by one vote with 33 nations voting

for Japan and 32 voting for the whales. There was one

abstention.

 

 

 

The Japanese delegation also accused Australia, New

Zealand, the U.K. and the USA to be “extremist” in

their defense of the whales.

 

 

 

This motion means that the majority of the IWC members

consider groups like Sea Shepherd to be a threat to

whaling.

 

 

 

“I bloody well hope they consider us a threat to

whaling,” said Captain Paul Watson. “Of course we are

a threat to whaling and we intent to always be a

threat to the barbarically inhumane and ecologically

destructive practice of whaling.”

 

 

 

The resolution was put forward by the host nation of

St. Kitts & Nevis.

 

 

 

“The world will remember that it was St. Kitts and

Nevis that struck the first blow to destroy the

commercial moratorium,” said Sea Shepherd Captain Alex

Cornelissen of the Netherlands presently onboard the

Sea Shepherd ship Farley Mowat in the Indian Ocean.

“May that nation be regarded infamously for their

whorish betrayal of the whales.”

 

 

 

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is calling for

an international boycott of tourism to St. Kitts and

Nevis in retaliation for their despicable sycophantic

posturing at the bidding of Japan.

 

 

 

DOLPHIN DEFENDER TERRORIZED BY POLICE

 

 

 

Ric O’Berry and his wife Helene were roused from their

sleep in the middle of the night when St. Kitts police

pounded on the door of their hotel room.

 

 

 

The police ordered them to get dressed and then

escorted them out of hotel and into the rainy streets

of the small Caribbean island where the International

Whaling Commission is meeting.

 

 

 

The day before, Ric had entered the building where the

IWC meeting took place. He had a television screen on

his chest and it was playing the DVD of the dolphin

slaughter at Taiji, Japan. He did not say a word. He

had just paraded before the delegates exposing them to

the images of bloody slaughter at Taiji. The Japanese

delegates were furious and called security to escort

Ric from the building.

 

 

 

Ric O’Berry represents the French group One Voice and

has been a leading opponent of the dolphin slaughter

in Taiji, Japan ever since 2003 when Sea Shepherd

brought the images of the slain and dying dolphins to

the international media.

 

 

 

Ric is also famous as the trainer of the world’s most

famous dolphin Flipper. He left the dolphin training

business years ago to become a lifelong champion of

dolphins around the world.

 

 

 

After being kicked out of his hotel by the police,

Ric and Helene were told they were not welcome in St.

Kitts and to leave the island.

 

 

 

One officer said told Ric that, “he would kick my

teeth out if I didn’t leave the island.”

 

 

 

Ric and Helene are still on the island and are in

hiding.

 

 

 

They did not commit a crime and the actions of the St.

Kitts police is fascistic to say the least. St. Kitts

is a bought and paid for Japanese puppet nation

recruited by Japan to vote for the overturn of the

global ban on commercial whaling.

 

 

 

“St. Kitts cops are more like Japanese body guards

then public servants,” said Captain Paul Watson.

 

 

 

Meanwhile the major of Taiji was flown to the island

by the Japanese Whaling delegation to speak as an

honored guest on the subject of slaughtering thousands

of dolphins in his town.

 

 

 

Captain Watson is not attending the IWC meeting

because he was told he would be denied entry to St.

Kitts and Nevis during the time that the IWC is

meeting in the island nation.

 

 

 

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is encouraging

tourists to boycott the Caribbean nations that are

scheming with Japan and Norway to kill whales.

 

 

 

“These nations like St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent,

St. Lucia, Grenada, Dominica, and Antigua and Barbuda

are places to be avoided by everyone who cares about

nature and the protection of marine wildlife,

especially the whales. Pilot whales are being killed

in St. Lucia and an annual sacrifice of two Humpbacks

is practiced in St. Vincent. There is nothing saintly

about these islands and they are all under the thumb

of their Japanese masters.” Said Captain Watson.

 

 

 

Captain Paul Watson

Founder and President of the Sea Shepherd Conservation

Society (1977-

Co-Founder - The Greenpeace Foundation (1972)

Co-Founder - Greenpeace International (1979) of the Sierra Club USA (2003-2006) - The Farley Mowat Institute - www.harpseals.org - Ocean Outfall Group of California

 

Advisory Board Member - Telluride Mountain Film

Festival

Advisory Board Member - The Animals Voice Magazine

 

Whom when I asked from what place he came,

And how he hight, himselfe he did ycleepe,

The Shepheard of the Ocean by Name,

And said he came far from

the main-sea deepe.

- Edmund Spenser

A.C.E. 1590

 

www.Seashepherd.org

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