Japanese Whaling Under Fire
by Alex Pasternack, Beijing, China on 02.19.07
Just as pro-whaling groups were assembling in Tokyo on Thursday to work out ways to expand Japan’s controversial whaling industry, the country’s flagship whaling vessel, the Nisshin Maru, was crippled by a fire, leaving the boat drifting about 100 miles from the world’s biggest penguin breeding ground on the Antarctic coast. While fears about a massive oil spill into the pristine waters swirled, the ship’s captain refused help from the nearest ship, an old tug named Esperanza. No wonder: the ship is run by Greenpeace, which has engaged the Maru in dramatic clashes over the years to stop the whale slaughtering. Even though many polls suggest that few Japanese people have ever tried whale meat and most of the younger generation is vehemently opposed, Japan continues hunting whales through a loophole in the International Whaling Commission’s rules that allows hunting whales for “scientific” purposes. Officials admitted that this year’s hunt—due to kill 945 whales by mid-March—will probably have to be abandoned. The arguments for and against killing whales may get complicated but the effects on the local ecosystems are as obvious as the pain often inflicted upon these intelligent creatures. It’s unclear what impact the fire on the Nisshin Maru (which featured eerily in Matthew Barney's 2006 Drawing Restraint 9) will have on Japan’s whaling yen, but at least we can thank the incident for returning whales to our consciousness. The figurative fire continues. See also: ::Breaking: Possible Environmental Disaster in Antarctica
I read elsewhere that most of what Norway harvests is frozen and going nowhere because no one on the world market wants to buy it anymore - even Japan. Both governments subsidize their respective industries out of some sort of romantic tradition and arrogance. The ruse of "Scientific harvest" is so blatantly a means of cover for commercial harvest, it well demonstrates the irrationality of their position
hoping that this comes to a peacefull end without more dissasters for environment... For the latest news from antarctica read: http://weblog.greenpeace.org/oceandefenders/ this is the webblog of greenpeace activists wich are right there on the ship esperanza
Thre's a new Greenpeace online community, kinda like myspace, at whales.greenpeace.org There's a whole community growing there with the common goal of stopping whaling - pretty cool.
Interesting that Emily Hunter is on the MY Robert Hunter now docked in Melbourne after chasing the Japanese whaling fleet in the Antarctic.
Her father Bob, a co founder of Greenpeace, ran the 1977 campaign in Australia to stop whaling. At that time there was one whaling station -- at Albany in Western Australia.
Bob took Zodiacs 30 miles out to sea to confront the whale chasers and stop them hunting sperm whales.
Chris Pash
http://thelastwhale.blogspot.com/
Slautering whales, fish, chickens or cows. It's a matter of time before there's just not enough meat or food to feed the world in a safe & humane way. With over fishing and unchecked farm land expansion the world is headed towards the extinction of itself.With over 3 billion people on earth and mass population expected to double in 10 years. Unless there is some radical popuation & polution control, the earth will be stripped of all it's precious natural resources and the world will be nothing but an over popuated ghetto of people poluting the earth into a desert of poverty and chaos. Perhpas the movie Soyent Green was not such a far fetched Sci Fi movie after all. Who said human flesh was not edible. Your stomach doesn't know the difference. What's the big deal
Slautering whales, fish, chickens or cows. It's a matter of time before there's just not enough meat or food to feed the world in a safe & humane way. With over fishing and unchecked farm land expansion the world is headed towards the extinction of itself.With over 3 billion people on earth and mass population expected to double in 10 years. Unless there is some radical popuation & polution control, the earth will be stripped of all it's precious natural resources and the world will be nothing but an over popuated ghetto of people poluting the earth into a desert of poverty and chaos. Perhpas the movie Soyent Green was not such a far fetched Sci Fi movie after all. Who said human flesh was not edible. Your stomach doesn't know the difference. What's the big deal
If my 13 year old daughter can see that whaling will make the whales extinct then why cant the whalers. It doesnt take a genius to see that eventually all the whales, fish and plant life will eventually be gone. So why do it? Its bad for the environment and in turn bad for the humans, creatures and everything on this planet.