A ceremony at the Ulsan
Whale Festival, in Ulsan, South Korea, during
the IWC meeting.
21/06/2005 — Despite underhand tactics, the
Japanese government has failed once more in
its attempt to pave the way towards commercial
whaling. This is fantastic news for whales
... but the battle is not over. Several minke
whales have been "accidentally"
caught in Korea over the last few days, and
we have secured shocking hidden camera footage
of how easy it is to buy a harpoon for illegal
whaling.
Today at the International Whaling Commission
(IWC) in Ulsan, South Korea, anti-whaling
nations won a historic victory. The commission
firmly rejecting a Japanese government proposal
which would have paved the way towards a lifting
of the ban on commercial whaling. It was voted
down 29 votes to 23.
Interestingly, Korea, which traditionally
has voted with the pro-whaling bloc, abstained
from the vote. Our activists here at the Whale
Embassy in Ulsan, South Korea were delighted
at this news. Through pressure here on the
ground and pressure from cyberactivists around
the world, we have made real headway in convincing
the Korean government not to risk their international
reputation by becoming a supporter of commercial
whaling. It is a big step forward for Korea.
However, coinciding with the IWC has been
Ulsan's "Whale Festival" - which
celebrates Ulsan's history of whaling. It
is legal to eat whale meat in Korea if the
whale was caught and killed accidentally while
fishing - known as "bycatch". But
by some "amazing coincidence" several
minke whales have been "accidentally"
caught just in time for the Festival. One
juvenile minke whale, caught just two days
ago, was sold for about USD$31,000.
Further evidence that some accidents aren't
accidental came when we obtained footage of
how easy it is to buy a whaling harpoon in
South Korea. The footage was filmed via a
hidden camera in an ordinary fishing tackle
store. The following dialogue occurs on camera:
Shopkeeper: Whales sell for a lot of money.
Customer: I heard there are a lot of harpoon
guns on sale at the moment…
Shopkeeper: Dolphins used to sell for around
300 000 won (approximately USD$300), nowadays
they can fetch up to (USD$600) 600 000 to
700 000 won (USD $700).
Customer: Yesterday I tried to find one,
but I had no luck, there weren’t any around.
The captain asked me to find one.
The customer goes on to buy a whale harpoon
that can hold a whale of up to one ton. We
have also obtained the whaling harpoon itself
as proof that this activity is still happening
in Korea.
This is just one example of why, despite
today's great victory at the IWC, there are
still threats to whales and dolphins. There
are loopholes that allow "Scientific
whaling" and the underground trade in
"bycatch", which according to Royal
Society research, threatens to drive the Korean
population of minke whales to extinction even
if commercial whaling is not resumed.
Of course there are also several more days
where whales issues will be hotly debated
at the IWC including a proposal by the Japanese
government to abolish the Southern Whale Sanctuary.
For now though, we have succeeded in keeping
the IWC moratorium on whaling firmly in place,
convinced Korea not to build a whale meat
factory, taken 51,000 people to a Virtual
March at the IWC, and continued to pressure
Iceland through the Iceland pledge. To be
a part of our ongoing efforts, sign up now
to be a Greenpeace cyberactivist. The whales
are counting on your continued vigilance.
