18 January 2008 - Southern
Ocean Whale Sanctuary — The Greenpeace ship
Esperanza continues to prevent whaling as
we shadow the Japanese fleet's factory ship,
Nisshin Maru. Our crew today sent a message,
direct from the Southern Ocean, linking
the scandal of whaling to a host of other
scandals plaguing the government in Tokyo.
On board an inflatable
running parallel to the giant factory ship,
Greenpeace Japan whales campaigner Sakyo
Noda held the Japanese kanji symbol ? (“nise”),
meaning “fake”, next to the word “RESEARCH”
which has been painted by the Japanese Fisheries
Agency on the Nishim Maru’s hull. Reflecting
a growing disquiet in Japanese society,
? was voted the best kanji symbol of the
year for 2008. Its choice reflects recent
food mislabeling scandals, problems over
political funds and faulty pension records.
Greenpeace Japan is now using it to show
that the use of taxpayers money to fund
“scientific” whaling which yields no useful
science is yet another government scandal.
Due to self-censorship,
until recently the whaling issue has not
been given much attention in the Japanese
news media. Being against whaling was thought
to be against Japanese culture. This created
a "whalers' sanctuary" inside
Japanese society that protected a small
number of bureaucrats, whalers and politicians
who have vested interests in whaling --
all at the expense of the taxpayer. But
finally things are changing, as the truth
is beginning to hit home.
Today, one of Japan's
leading newspapers, the Asahi Shimbun, called
into question the validity of the whaling
programme, by asking "Why is the Japanese
government so insistent on engaging in whaling?".
The report cited concerns about the use
of taxpayers’ money, dubious science, the
lack of interest from the fishing industry
in supporting the whaling programme and
the fact that former employees of the Japanese
government Fisheries Agency were "parachuted"
into key (and well paid) roles in the supposedly
independent Institute of Cetacean Research
– the agency which commissions the whaling
fleet.
For many years the Japan
Fisheries Agency has claimed that whaling
is integral to Japanese culture. Yet when
shown pictures of modern whaling in the
Southern Ocean, complete with factory ships
and grenade-tipped harpoons, Japanese people
don’t recognise anything traditional about
it. In fact, modern whaling methods were
introduced by the US after World War II
as a means of addressing food shortages.
Further, a survey conducted
by the Nippon Research Centre, in 2006,
showed that over 95 percent of the public
had never or very rarely eaten whale meat.
It also found that 90 percent of Japanese
people had no idea their government hunted
whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary,
and once they were aware of it, 69 percent
disagreed with it.
Today, Japan has over
4000 tonnes of frozen whale meat in storage,
and despite the government's attempts to
make eating it part of Japanese culture,
the public just aren't interested. Instead,
there is a growing interest in the campaign
to end whaling in the Southern Ocean. The
Greenpeace Japan website has been attracting
an extraordinary increase in traffic. Last
week the number of page views jumped from
10,000 a day to 10,000 in one hour. Visitors
to the web site are also writing letters
to Japanese government ministers asking
them to stop squandering tax payers money
on whaling, via an online petition.
The real beneficiaries
of Japanese whaling are a few bureaucrats
who maintain the industry on subsidies to
cover shrinking whalemeat sales, while damaging
Japan's reputation and profitability abroad.
It's time for the taxpayers, the media,
and the business community of Japan to call
for an end to this scandal.
+ More
Whaling fleet makes
illegal fuel stop
23 January 2008 - Southern
Ocean Whale Sanctuary — Yesterday, after
11 days of preventing the Japanese whaling
fleet from killing whales, activists from
the Greenpeace ship Esperanza, temporarily
blocked the fleet's factory ship Nisshin
Maru from being illegally refueled in Antarctic
waters.
As part of a dramatic
peaceful protest, two of our activists drove
an inflatable boat between the factory ship
and the refueling vessel, as the two massive
ships began moving closer together in preparation
for refueling.
Two Greenpeace inflatables
were launched while members of the Esperanza's
crew warned the Japanese vessels, which
were still about a mile apart, that our
boat and activists were beside the refueling
vessel, Oriental Bluebird, to oppose the
illegal refueling within the Antarctic Treaty
area. But the two ships continued to close
in on each other trapping one of our inflatables.
Before inflatables were launched the crew
of the Greenpeace ship Esperanza radioed
the Panamanian flagged Oriental Bluebird,
in Japanese, Spanish and English, with a
statement:
"The Oriental Bluebird
must leave Antarctic waters immediately:
your presence here is unwanted and a threat
to the pristine Antarctic environment which
has been declared a particularly sensitive
sea area by the International Maritime Organisation
and a 'natural reserve, devoted to peace
and science' by the Environmental Protocol
to the Antarctic Treaty… Japan, as a party
to the Treaty, must comply with the letter
and the spirit of the Treaty."
For about half an hour
our inflatable – 8 meters long between vessels
of around 130 and 160 meters length – prevented
the two ships from starting to refuel. Eventually
the inflatable was forced out, with our
driver narrowly avoiding getting caught
by a cable.
The two ships began
exchanging their goods: fuel for the Nisshin
Maru to continue hunting whales, and the
boxed "scientific results" (whale
meat) for the Oriental Bluebird to take
back to Tokyo.
Our activists continued
to document the refueling and whale meat
transfer from inflatables. As they were
doing so, the Japanese hunter vessels spent
more than an hour performing dangerous maneuvers,
driving directly towards our inflatables
in order to push them away from the Nisshin
Maru and Oriental Bluebird.
At this point, the Australian
coastguard ship, the Oceanic Viking appeared
on the horizon. Their arrival had an immediate
impact on the activities. The hunter vessels
slowed down and increased their distance
to the factory ships and as the Oceanic
Viking came closer they also turned off
their hoses.
The Oceanic Viking launched
two inflatables to document the whaling
fleet, free from the freezing water canon
or dangerous maneuvers of hunter ships.
As our activists returned to the Esperanza
they radioed the Australian crew to request
that the Australian Government investigate
the illegal refueling within Antarctic waters.
Clearly, the Oriental
Bluebird is an integral part of the whaling
fleet. But it does not having any permit
from the Panamanian Government as required
by the International Whaling Commission.
Japan is a signatory to the Antarctic Treaty,
which is designed to ensure protection of
the Antarctic environment. But the whaling
fleet consistently fails to submit the required
environmental impact assessments to the
Antarctic Treaty Secretariat. The Oriental
Bluebird also lacks this documentation.
Ironically, Panama takes a position in defense
of whales, at the International Whaling
Commission and elsewhere and yet they participate
in whaling by allowing the Oriental Bluebird
to operate under their flag. Greenpeace
is urging Panama to de-flag the Oriental
Bluebird, or order it stop supporting the
needless slaughter of whales in the Southern
Ocean Whale Sanctuary.
Yesterday the Japanese
Fisheries Agency said at a press briefing
that they have not resumed whaling because
the Esperanza is with them. Greenpeace activists
are in the Southern Ocean to peacefully
stop the hunt and that is what they have
done. But it is not enough to stop whaling
only when the world's eyes are on the fleet
and the Esperanza is on its tail. Japan
must call an end to this whaling season
now and make it the last one.
The Japanese government
has come under increasing pressure over
their whaling programme and yesterday that
pressure increased after Greenpeace Japan
Whales Project Leader Junichi Sato wrote
an open letter to Japanese business leaders
warning of the negative impact that whaling
is having on the country's reputation internationally.
Already the New Zealand
division of Toyota has condemned whaling
and
even the former whaling company Nissui,
has acknowledged that whaling is bad for
business.
The letter states:
'By hunting nearly 1,000
whales including endangered fin whales,
byusing tax payers' money, under the name
of "research" in aninternationally
recognized whale sanctuary, the Japanese
government iscreating huge environmental,
economic, and diplomatic friction, thenegative
impact of which many professionals in the
economic andfinancial world in Japan have
underestimated. As Nippon Suisan Kaisha,Ltd.
(Nissui), one of the major ex-whaling companies,
said, "Involvementin whaling is a business
risk." Whaling creates a negative image
to theworld for Japanese companies and the
country itself.
+ More
Does Canon support shooting
whales?
24 January 2008 - Tokyo,
Japan — Here at Greenpeace, we support shooting
whales... with cameras. But we're surprised
to learn that Canon, the world's number
one digital camera producer, isn't willing
to condemn using harpoons -- despite their
high-profile advertising and sponsorship
programmes dedicated to wildlife and endangered
species.
We wrote to Canon headquarters
in Japan asking their CEO to speak out against
Japan's whaling programme. But Canon declined
to take a stand against the killing of thousands
of whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.
Is this really wildlife as Canon sees it?
Around the world, Canon
cameras shoot whales on whale-watching expeditions
but in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary,
many whales are shot instead with exploding
harpoons. Thousands of whales, including
endangered fin whales, have been killed
here under the guise of "scientific
research" ever since the global moratorium
on whaling came into force in 1986. Whale
meat from the hunt is sold to a tiny minority
of Japanese people who eat whale meat --
the rest is turned into dog food or added
to the stockpile of around 4,000 tonnes
of unsold meat. Whales can be studied without
killing them: the cloak of "science"
merely allows a few Japanese bureaucrats
to maintain an unprofitable whale meat industry
at the expense of Japanese taxpayers. Yet
this scandal continues because there is
not enough domestic pressure in Japan to
end it.
+ More
Take Action: Ask the
CEO of Canon Japan to defend whales
Mister Fujio Mitarai,
the CEO of Canon Japan, is a businessman,
a taxpayer, and the leader of a company
that endorses wildlife conservation. He
is also the head of the Nippon Keidanren
(Japanese Business Federation). This is
the highest position to which a CEO can
aspire in the Japanese business world and
it means having the ear of the Prime Minister.
His voice could help put an end to a decades-old
scientific hoax and subsidy scandal, and
add weight to Canon's claims to environmental
concern by actually saving the whales that
advertise Canon cameras. So we asked him
to speak out against whaling within Japanese
society by signing the following statement
to clarify Canon's position:
"Canon is committed
to building a better world for future generations,
and does not support the hunting of endangered
or threatened species with anything other
than a camera. Canon believes the lethal
whaling research programme in the Southern
Ocean should be ended, and replaced with
a non-lethal research programme."
Unfortunately, Canon
has so far refused our request, saying "We
fully recognise the importance of protecting
endangered wildlife. We have continuously
put our advertisements featuring “endangered
species” in National Geographic since 1981."
However, their letter
concluded, "scientific opinion about
research whaling varies... we will not sign
the statement you have sent us."
But the whales need
a powerful domestic ally in Japan -- so
now we’re asking our supporters (and especially
Canon customers) to urge him to reconsider,
and express his disapproval of lethal research
whaling. If Japan wants to do research,
it can do so with cameras and other non-lethal
means - just as we have been doing through
our Great Whale Trail project, which uses
satellite tracking, photo identification
and skin biopsies.
To preserve our independence, we do not
accept corporate donations. Greenpeace is
not sponsored by Canon, never has been,
and never will be. We do use Canon cameras
– there are nine of them aboard the Greenpeace
ship Esperanza at the moment, one of them
in the hands of Leandra, our on-board scientist
doing non-lethal research. All were professional
or personal purchases. We are not calling
for a boycott on Canon products -- they
are not directly involved in whaling --
we are challenging Canon to match word to
deed, and to take action for the whales,
in the same way we seek to inspire individuals
to take action for a better world.
Why Canon?
Canon has built a great
deal of its brand's reputation for environmental
concern through their sponsorship of environmental
causes, including the conservation of endangered
species. Canon runs a popular series of
ads in National Geographic Magazine entitled
"Wildlife as Canon sees it" and
supports wildlife advocacy groups around
the world with donations, equipment, and
expertise.
We believe that when
a corporation draws income and brand value
from association with environmental causes,
they have a responsibility to speak out
on those issues. We trust that most of the
good folks at Canon, as one of the world's
premier "wildlife brands," share
our concern that wildlife in general, and
whales in particular, should not die unnecessarily
for "science."
Canon says on its website that it wants
to "hand over a beautiful Earth for
future generations".
A corporation which
paints itself as a defender of wildlife
and one concerned about endangered species
and the natural world ought to do more than
express those values in images, advertisements,
and sponsorships: they need to use their
immense power to speak out and act for a
better world.
+ More
Every day, supporters
ask: Why no boycott?
Greenpeace does not
endorse a general boycott of Japanese products.
We know that the majority of Japanese people
do not actually support whaling, and we
are anti-whaling, not anti-Japanese. We
believe such a boycott would be difficult
to focus, harm the wrong people, and be
ineffective in stopping whaling.
Yet we also know there are deep sentiments
among our supporters to participate in such
a boycott - they write to us literally every
day during the whaling season either announcing
they have launched their own boycott or
wanting to know why Greenpeace doesn't do
the same. Even in the absence of an organised
boycott, whaling harms Japan's image with
potential customers.
Here's an example.
A few months ago, we heard from a woman
who wrote to Toyota in her home country,
New Zealand, to say she was not going to
replace her Prius with a new one, because
Toyota, as a Japanese car company, had an
implicit association with Japan's whaling
programme. Toyota New Zealand wrote back
to her to say "Please be assured that
Toyota New Zealand and Toyota Motor Corporation
Japan do not condone whaling for commercial,
scientific or research purposes." While
Toyota Japan later distanced themselves
from this position, it demonstrates how
much of a liability whaling can be for Japanese
corporations operating in the West.
When we looked at what other Japanese corporations
ought to be enlisted to speak out domestically
against whaling, Canon leapt out as an obvious
choice.
Whaling: more trouble than it's worth
Some Japanese officials
are already speaking out about whaling being
a diplomatic liability. The Japanese decision,
since put on hold, to add humpback whales
to the list of species targeted in the whale
hunt led to formal complaints from several
of Japan's allies. The Los Angeles Times
quoted one official, who asked to remain
anonymous, as saying "[Whaling] is
doing no good for Japanese diplomacy. Many
people are saying Japan is not balancing
its interests, with a vocal minority dictating
a course that risks some of our most cherished
relationships."
As head of the Japanese Business Federation,
Mister Mitarai has a responsibility not
just for Canon’s own welfare, but also for
the collective well-being of Japanese businesses
at home and abroad -- where whaling is a
liability for Japanese brands and their
profitability.
If you think Mister Mitarai should actively
defend whales in the Southern Ocean Whale
Sanctuary you can write to him by clicking
on the link below.
