Japanese "scientific whaling" fleet departs

12/03/2009

Greenpeace witnesses the killing of whales in the Southern Ocean by the Yushin Maru and the Kyo Maru No.1 ships of the Japanese whaling fleet, and the transfer of the whales to the Nisshin Maru factory ship. A sign on the whaling ship reads "Greenpeace Misleads You!" Greenpeace is using every available means to bring the whaling hunt to an early end and make it the last time the Sanctuary is breached by the whalers./ Copyright © Greenpeace / Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert

The Japanese “scientific whaling” fleet has taken off once again for the Southern Ocean near Antarctica, and many conservation groups hope it will be the last time. This comes on the heels of a visit to Japan by President Barack Obama, where he met Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama. Greenpeace unveiled a “Yes We Can” banner next to a factory ship, the Nisshin Maru, hoping to encourage the two to end so-called scientific whaling for good. According to Greenpeace, both leaders in their election campaigns said there’s no future in whaling. Obama has stated an opposition to “scientific whaling” and Hatoyama has pledged a sea change in government bureaucracy, including the waste of taxpayer money. The fleet of ships that heads to Antarctica every year is subsidized by 795 million yen, equivalent to US $8.8 million.

Though commercial whaling is banned under the International Whaling Commission, and the Southern Ocean around Antartica is officially a whale sanctuary closed to commercial whaling, Japan has managed to secure “scientific permits” which means they can kill 935 minke whales and 50 endangered fin whales this year alone within the sanctuary. It has caused a lot of anger among conservation groups – including, of course, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society featured in Animal Planet’s Whale Wars.

Even the government of Australia – via Prime Minister Peter Garrett - expressed disappointment. In an article in the Government Monitor he said, “The Australian Government has said repeatedly that we do not have to kill whales to study them. We’ve backed our position with a $32 million commitment to non-lethal whale research, including through the Southern Ocean Research Partnership, and we have invited all member nations of the IWC to be part of this world first international research endeavour.”

Greenpeace Japan actually helped expose a scandal where they found evidence that the scientific whaling fleet crew members were embezzling whale meat for personal gain. Now two Greenpeace staff members involved in the expose', Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki, stand trial in Japan for theft of "cardboard" and trespassing, because the two took a box from the mail station, whose contents were listed as cardboard but inside was whale meat. For exposing this, they now face trial. The whole story including a video is on the Greenpeace website, and quite interesting.

"Japan can call it whatever they like, but the fact is that they are killing whales for money. Commercial whaling by any name has no place in the twenty-first century," says John Hocevar, Greenpeace USA's Oceans Campaign Director.