Greenpeace activists in Japan announced Monday this week the departure of the Japanese whaling factory ship which was heading for to the Antarctic for minke whales. At the same time Australia is stepping up its opposition to Japanese whaling with the Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, revealing details of a new $4 million anti-whaling program.
Greenpeace protested as the Nisshin Maru, a whaling factory ship, left a Japanese port without the normal departure ceremony.
Greenpeace Australia’s Pacific manager, Andrew Male, explained that there were no plans to follow or disrupt the hunt this season, instead he said,
“Based on our 30 years of experience against lethal whaling, Greenpeace has decided ... to focus on continuing to shift public opinion in Japan.”
Mr Garrett, formerly the lead singer of popular activist rock and roll group, Midnight Oil, said that the Australian government was undecided about whether to send a ship to shadow the Japanese hunting fleet. Last season, Australia had sent the customs vessel Oceanic Viking to document the hunting activities.
Other countries have been invited to join Australia’s whale research project and to commit to the anti-whaling cause. “I would urge all the nations of the International Whaling Commission(IWC) to join with us ... ,” Mr Garrett said.
Japan is believed to have a target, this season, of 1,000 whales. Which it gained by using a loophole in the 1986 IWC moratorium allowing ‘lethal research’ on whales.
Last season Japan only took 551 of its 1,000 whale quota from the Southern Ocean Whaling Sanctuary. Just over half of its target reached, due to the harassment by Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd activists.
Sea Shepherd again plans to disrupt Japan’s 2008-09 whaling season in the Antarctic. The activists plan on using their ship Steve Irwin, named after the Australian crocodile hunter, to again confront the whalers. The Steve Irwin will depart Brisbane for the Southern Ocean on December 1.
Two collisions between the activists and mother whaling ship were reported last season between the activists and and whaling ship as the whalers approached pods of whales.
Mr Garrett said he intends using diplomatic efforts together with the results of the new research project to influence the IWC and force Japan to stop hunting, “I’m not under any delusions as to how difficult and challenging this task is,” he said.
According to Greenpeace research the Japanese people are changing their views on eating the whale meat, with up to 70 per cent not supporting the high seas whaling. Fewer upscale restaurants have whale meat on their menus according to a AFP report.
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