Bad news for whales

It’s not the worst possible outcome from the IWC, but it’s pretty bad… delegates today voted 33 - 32 to support a non-binding resolution criticising the moratorium on commercial whaling. More here, here, and here’s Metiria’s release in response.

[Update: Here’s the Government’s press release too]

frog says

7 Responses to “Bad news for whales”

  1. Sam Buchanan Says:

    The Sea Shepherd campaign against Antarctic whaling is detailed here:

    http://www.seashepherd.org/whales/whales.html

    They are raising funds for a faster ship, if anyone has some spare dosh.

  2. Gill Says:

    Thanks for that link Sam.
    I’m not buying ANYTHING Japanese !

  3. Sam Buchanan Says:

    I certainly am - especially nori and wasabi. I like Meiji brand choclate too (though usually I’d stick to Whittakers due to being locally produced) and have you tried ume-shu (Japanese plum wine)? If not I recommend it.

  4. tochigi Says:

    From a Financial Times edtorial:
    “Japan’s claim to have a special cultural justification for whaling turns out on examination to be largely bogus. A few Japanese coastal communities do have a long tradition of harpooning - and they should be allowed to take small numbers of whales, as do aboriginal communities in Siberia, Greenland and Alaska.

    But most Japanese only started to consume whalemeat with the coming of industrial whaling. There is little evidence that younger people today have any taste for or cultural attraction to eating whales; indeed the Japanese government has found it hard to sell the meat from the hundreds of whales a year that it kills in the name of what it laughably calls “scientific research”.

    The minority of Japanese who do have strong feelings in favour of whaling tend to exploit their fellow citizens’ resentment at being pushed around by the rest of world - rather like the nationalistic minority who strongly support prime ministerial visits to honour Japan’s war dead at the controversial Yasukuni shrine, despite the harm they do to the country’s international reputation.”
    ********************************
    I’ve never agreed with an FT editorial so completely!

  5. eredwen Says:

    tochigi:

    Thanks for that !

  6. Exquire Says:

    http://www.wordpress.tokyotimes.org/?p=872
    Meanwhile, whale meat comes in tins!

  7. tochigi Says:

    Two articles worth a look:
    1. A two-month old article written for Japan Focus magazine by The Independent’s David McNiell:
    Whale of a fight: Japan vs ‘culinary imperialists’
    2. A more recent article in last week’s NZ Listener by James Frankham, complete with sloppy sub-editing:
    Contrary to popular opinion

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