Japan & Norway Seek International Endorsement for Commercial Whaling
Klaus Merkle
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LEGALIZE IT ! JAPAN AND NORWAY SEEK INTERNATIONAL ENDORSEMENT
FOR COMMERCIAL WHALING AT 51ST IWC
Grenada/ Amsterdam, 21st May 1999 --- As the 51st meeting
of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) opens on 24th
May in Grenada (Caribbean), Greenpeace warns that Japan and
Norway will put increased pressure on the IWC to legitimise their
whaling operations.
The two nations are still actively hunting hundreds of minke
whales each year in defiance of the international IWC ban on
commercial whaling. Japan continues to hunt whales under the
guise of scientific whaling, while Norway simply ignores the ban,
seriously undermining the international law agreement.
"If Norway and Japan are successful in avoiding further
sanctions this year, the whales will be in serious trouble , said
John Frizell, head of the Greenpeace delegation at the IWC. It is
frightening to imagine how much worse it could get if other
countries followed the Norwegian and Japanese example. Pirate
whalers are already killing endangered whale species to be sold
on the lucrative Japanese market".
A Greenpeace ship, the Rainbow Warrior, is currently in the
North Sea monitoring Norwegian whaling. The Norwegian whale
hunting season opened on May 3rd. Whalers have received a
Government quota of 753 minke-whales.
Greenpeace is calling on the IWC to strengthen existing
protection for whales by implementing a series of regional
sanctuaries. Australia has proposed a South Pacific Whale
Sanctuary and Brazil has drafted (1) a plan for a South Atlantic
Sanctuary.
Since the whales rarely cross the equator, establishment of these
sanctuaries would mean that the whales of the Southern
hemisphere could live their entire lives in an area free from
commercial whaling.
Japan however, is not only fighting further sanctuaries, it is
actually pressing the IWC to abolish the world's largest, the
Southern Ocean Sanctuary, only five years after it was adopted.
The scientific whaling fleet from Japan, the only country to
oppose the adoption of the Southern Ocean Sanctuary, returned
home at the end of April having caught 389 minke whales in the
Southern Ocean Sanctuary.
For information: http://www.greenpeace.org
Note to the editor:
(1) At this stage it is still unclear whether Brazil will present their
plan this year or not.