12 December 2007 - International
— All around the world, increasing numbers
of people and governments are urging Japan
to give up its whaling operations in the Southern
Ocean Whale Sanctuary. Back in Japan however,
there is evidence that plans are emerging
to build a brand new whaling factory ship
which would extend whaling for decades to
come.
Send a letter to the Japanese Prime Minister
It is beginning to emerge that Japanese whaling
interests want to build a new factory ship
to replace the aging and fire-plagued Nisshin
Maru, which is now 20 years old. The Suisan
Keizai newspaper (a Fisheries Industry publication
in Japan) revealed earlier this year that:
….because the Nisshin Maru is getting old
and the capacity to hold whale meat on board
is not enough to meet the demands from the
new expanded research whaling activity, there
are some voices asking for a new factory ship...The
factory ship, Nisshin Maru, caught fire not
only this year, but also once in the past.
And in both cases, the causes of the fire
were not identified... (Translated by Greenpeace)
The "some voices" calling for the
new ship are likely to be the only real beneficiaries
of Japan's whaling programme: a handful of
bureaucrats who are abusing public money to
carry on a research programme that generates
no useful science and whale meat that sits
unsold and unwanted in cold storage.
The Japanese Fisheries Agency (JFA) has been
understandably quiet about the prospects of
spending billions of yen of public money on
a new whaling factory ship. Recent public
opinion polls in Japan have seen the trend
of declining whale consumption and the shunning
of whale meat by younger Japanese people continue.
The JFA and the handful of bureaucrats who
benefit from whaling are no doubt hoping the
plan stays under wraps until it is too late
to stop it.
What Does the New Whaling Factory Ship Look
Like?
If the Japanese whalers want a factory ship
that can hold all the whale meat taken from
the current "research" program (called
JARPA II), the factory ship needs to be able
to hold up to 6,000 tons of whale meat . The
current Nisshin Maru has capacity to hold
around 2,000 tons. This suggests that the
new factory ship will be at least 2 to 3 times
the size of the current one.
The current Nisshin Maru was built with the
cost of 7 billion yen (US$ 63 million) 20
years ago. It's likely a new, larger ship
could easily cost between 14 billion and 21
billion yen (US$125 million to US$188 million).
Who is financing the Construction?
Private financing of the new ship is unlikely
as no bank or other private financial institution
would loan money to whaling given the declining
consumption of whale meat in Japan and the
risk to their international reputation.
Therefore, it is most likely that it will
be public money from Japanese government institutions
that will be used to build the ship. The strongest
candidate is the Overseas Fishery Cooperation
Foundation (OFCF).
In March 2007, the OFCF changed their guidelines
for giving loans, mentioning that they will
grant loans to proposals that fit into the
category of "Cooperation in international
efforts to manage marine resources."
The new guidelines contain a sentence that
clearly suggests their intention to provide
loans to whaling activities:
"Cooperation in international efforts
to manage marine resources" applies to
proposals that make a contribution to …..
the research and study of the management of
fish species, including marine mammals…"
(Translated by Greenpeace)
No surprisingly, the chairman of the OFCF
is Michio Shimada, the former director general
of the Japan Fisheries Agency, which oversees
the whaling operations. The Japan Fisheries
Agency has also given around 1.2 billion yen
(US$10.5 million) in annual subsidies to OFCF.
If the OFCF is granting loans for construction
of the new whaling factory ship, then Japanese
tax money will be used to finance the construction.
Who is Building the Ship?
Greenpeace has conducted a survey of 23 ship
building companies in Japan asking whether
they would be willing to accept an offer to
build the whaling factory ship. The only company
among the major ship builders that did not
give a definitive "NO" was Mitsubishi
Heavy Industry LTD.
If Mitsubishi did take the contract to build
the new whaling factory ship, their international
reputation would be severely tarnished.
How Can We Stop This?
Tell the Japanese Prime Minister, Minister
of Finance and Minister of Administrative
Reform that building the new whaling factory
ship with tax payers' money is a bad idea.
Killing whales for fake science which nobody
needs and whale meat which hardly anyone wants
is an abuse of Japanese taxpayers' money.
We can not simply wait until a contract is
awarded and construction begins.
Send the letter below asking Japan to stop
plans to build a new whaling factory ship,
and start planning how to end the whaling
in the Southern Oceans Whale Sanctuary.
+ More
Mister Splashy Pants the whale - you named
him, now save him
10 December 2007 - International — Out of
11,000 submissions in our competition to name
the humpback whales we were tracking on their
migration to the Southern Ocean, we narrowed
it down to the final 30. Over 150,000 people
then voted for their favourite name.
Mister Splashy Pants is the winner by a nautical
mile!
It seems like the world couldn't get enough
of Mister Splashy Pants with many websites
encouraging their readers to vote for 'Splashy'.
And as we all know, once the wonderful world
of the internet got hold of Mister Splashy
Pants, it was all over bar the final splash.
Mister Splashy Pants got a huge 119,367 votes
(over 78 percent of the vote) with his nearest
rival being Humphrey at 4,329 (less than 3
percent). The rest of the top ten were Aiko,
Libertad, Mira, Kaimana, Aurora, Shanti, Amal
and Manami.
Many websites also took credit for the rise
and rise of the Splashy-Panted One. Some websites
encouraged their readers to cheat and vote
more than once, while others like Treehugger
seemed to imply that Mister Splashy Pants
wasn't a proper name for a whale.
We're sure Treehugger didn't mean it that
way but it resulted in a final wave of votes
from their readers that took Splashy to an
unreachable position at the top of the pod.
To everyone who voted for Mister Splashy
Pants, now that you've named him, it's time
to save him - he might have a great name but
he and his friends are still in danger. The
only way to be 100 percent sure that 'Splashy'
doesn't get harpooned is to stop killing all
whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.
With just a few clicks you can help save
Mister Splashy Pants and his friends: sign
our petition calling upon the Japanese Fisheries
Agency to promise not to kill Mister Splashy
Pants.
For the people who voted for a name other
than Mister Splashy Pants, take heart. The
scientists involved in the Great Whale Trail
tagged 20 humpback whales in the South Pacific.
The top 7 names will be used to name whales
with a further 5 whales being named by our
Whale Defenders.
In the coming days we will post photos of
Splashy taken earlier this year in the Pacific.
To keep up to date with all the latest news
about Mister Splashy Pants and his friends,
sign up for your free Whale Mail newsletter.
And last but not least, a big thanks to YOU,
the people who made the name-a-whale competition
so much fun.
