17 May 2006 - The Australian
Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Senator
Ian Campbell, has called for consumers of whale
meat to reject new marketing efforts by whaling
nations to encourage greater consumption of whale
meat.
“The recent drop in demand for
whale meat has prompted new efforts to encourage
consumers to eat whale meat,” Senator Campbell
said.
Japan’s Institute of Cetacean
Research recently announced a new marketing company
that will attempt to offload its frozen whale
meat stockpile.
Whaling for human consumption
is still undertaken by countries such as Japan,
Norway and Iceland.
While Iceland and Japan conduct whaling in the
name of ‘science’, Norway simply defies the global
ban on commercial whaling.
Senator Campbell said that demand
for whale meat, particularly in Japan, appeared
to be steadily declining despite increasing levels
of ‘scientific’ whaling activities.
"As the whale meat stockpile reaches new
heights, and demand for whale meat appears to
be slowing, a new campaign has emerged to try
to convince consumers to eat more whale meat.
“This burgeoning stockpile now
includes the meat from 853 minke whales and 10
endangered fin whales, taken as part of Japan’s
2005-06 Antarctic scientific whaling programme
that recently ended.
“This marketing exercise only underscores the
true purpose of so-called ‘scientific’ whaling.”
“I have recently written to
the countries of Norway, Japan and Iceland to
bring to their attention a major marine science
programme recently completed by Australia in the
Southern Ocean. This work supports the research
needs of the International Whaling Commission
(IWC) for this region and confirms that there
is no justification for scientific whaling.
“Australia, together with its
pro-conservation allies including New Zealand
and the United Kingdom, want to see an end to
whaling under the guise of science, and the ban
on commercial whaling continued and will be pushing
strongly for this at the next IWC meeting in June.
“Japan, Iceland and Norway will
be leading a campaign with other pro-whaling nations
to strengthen scientific whaling and resume commercial
whaling and we will be fighing very hard to stop
this from happening.
