SEA SHEPHERD CONSERVATION SOCIETY - International
Whaling Commission Update
Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2006 16:35:01 -0700
SEA SHEPHERD CONSERVATION SOCIETY
International Whaling Commission Update
(Please forward and distribute)
JAPAN FAILS IN EFFORT TO
ABOLISH THE SOUTHERN OCEAN SANCTUARY
Japan has lost all four votes on resolutions brought
before the IWC including the important votes on
commercial whaling and the Southern Ocean Whale
Sanctuary.
This means that the whales have won out over the
whalers but only by the slimmest of margins.
But it does mean that the Sea Shepherd Conservation
Society can once again legally intervene against
illegal Japanese whaling activities in the Southern
Ocean Whale Sanctuary beginning in December of 2006.
Yesterday Japan failed to prevent the IWC from
discussing the conservation of small cetaceans. The
vote was 32 for the whales 30 for the whalers with 4
abstentions.
The 2nd vote was to introduce secret ballots. The vote
was 33 for the whales and 30 for the whalers with one
abstention.
Today Japan proposed a motion to allow Japanese
coastal communities to hunt whales. This would have
effectively circumvented the 1986 moratorium on
commercial whaling. The vote was 30 for Japan and 31
for the whales with 4 abstentions. The abstentions
were China, Solomon Islands, South Korea and Kiribati
all expected to have voted for the whalers.
The vote prompted Joji Morishita, the Japanese
delegation's spokesman to say, "We are glad this is
not a secret vote. Japan will remember which countries
supported this proposal and which countries said no."
Japan has given over $400 million in aid packages to
nations it has recruited into the International
Whaling Commission.
The 4th vote was a Japanese proposal to eliminate the
Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. It needed a two thirds
majority but Japan was hoping for a simple majority to
lend legitimacy to their illegal slaughter of whales
in Antarctic waters. The vote was 28 for Japan and 33
for the whales with four pro-whaling nations
abstaining.
Japan is furious. Conservationists are delighted.
"I can't understand it," said Ben Bradshaw, Britain's
Minister for Local Environment, Marine and Animal
Welfare. "We are a great friend and ally of Japan in
almost every other field. And it is completely
inexplicable to me that Japan, Norway and Iceland
continue to push for a resumption of commercial
whaling.
"That hugely damages their international reputations,"
Bradshaw added. "The whale meat is stacking up in huge
freezers in these countries because they can't sell
it. I can only think that it is about a kind of
culturally nationalistic obstinacy that makes them
pursue this course."
The IWC meetings will continue until Tuesday. The
victories on the 1st four resolutions bode well for
the rest of the meeting.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is not
officially attending the meeting because Sea Shepherd
is the only organization officially banned from
attending IWC meetings because Sea Shepherd is the
only organization that directly intervenes against
illegal whaling. Sea Shepherd does have unofficial
representation.
We dont protest whaling, said Sea Shepherd
International Director Jonny Vasic. We intervene
against illegal whaling by acting to uphold the
international treaties and regulations protecting
whales.
This year the Vice Chair of the IWC, Horst
Klienschmidt of South Africa and is now a director of
the Sea Shepherd in South Africa and a member of the
Sea Shepherd International Advisory Board.
Japan Wins By One Vote on Fifth Resolution
The fifth major vote was a moral victory for Japan but
it was non-binding because it required a two-thirds
majority.
Japan motioned for a non-binding pro-whaling
declaration by the IWC that declared that the whaling
ban was no longer valid and that whales are
responsible for the depletion of world wide fish
populations. Japan also declared nongovernmental
environmental organizations as a threat to whaling.
This motion passed by one vote with 33 nations voting
for Japan and 32 voting for the whales. There was one
abstention.
The Japanese delegation also accused Australia, New
Zealand, the U.K. and the USA to be extremist in
their defense of the whales.
This motion means that the majority of the IWC members
consider groups like Sea Shepherd to be a threat to
whaling.
I bloody well hope they consider us a threat to
whaling, said Captain Paul Watson. Of course we are
a threat to whaling and we intent to always be a
threat to the barbarically inhumane and ecologically
destructive practice of whaling.
The resolution was put forward by the host nation of
St. Kitts & Nevis.
The world will remember that it was St. Kitts and
Nevis that struck the first blow to destroy the
commercial moratorium, said Sea Shepherd Captain Alex
Cornelissen of the Netherlands presently onboard the
Sea Shepherd ship Farley Mowat in the Indian Ocean.
May that nation be regarded infamously for their
whorish betrayal of the whales.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is calling for
an international boycott of tourism to St. Kitts and
Nevis in retaliation for their despicable sycophantic
posturing at the bidding of Japan.
DOLPHIN DEFENDER TERRORIZED BY POLICE
Ric OBerry and his wife Helene were roused from their
sleep in the middle of the night when St. Kitts police
pounded on the door of their hotel room.
The police ordered them to get dressed and then
escorted them out of hotel and into the rainy streets
of the small Caribbean island where the International
Whaling Commission is meeting.
The day before, Ric had entered the building where the
IWC meeting took place. He had a television screen on
his chest and it was playing the DVD of the dolphin
slaughter at Taiji, Japan. He did not say a word. He
had just paraded before the delegates exposing them to
the images of bloody slaughter at Taiji. The Japanese
delegates were furious and called security to escort
Ric from the building.
Ric OBerry represents the French group One Voice and
has been a leading opponent of the dolphin slaughter
in Taiji, Japan ever since 2003 when Sea Shepherd
brought the images of the slain and dying dolphins to
the international media.
Ric is also famous as the trainer of the worlds most
famous dolphin Flipper. He left the dolphin training
business years ago to become a lifelong champion of
dolphins around the world.
After being kicked out of his hotel by the police,
Ric and Helene were told they were not welcome in St.
Kitts and to leave the island.
One officer said told Ric that, he would kick my
teeth out if I didnt leave the island.
Ric and Helene are still on the island and are in
hiding.
They did not commit a crime and the actions of the St.
Kitts police is fascistic to say the least. St. Kitts
is a bought and paid for Japanese puppet nation
recruited by Japan to vote for the overturn of the
global ban on commercial whaling.
St. Kitts cops are more like Japanese body guards
then public servants, said Captain Paul Watson.
Meanwhile the major of Taiji was flown to the island
by the Japanese Whaling delegation to speak as an
honored guest on the subject of slaughtering thousands
of dolphins in his town.
Captain Watson is not attending the IWC meeting
because he was told he would be denied entry to St.
Kitts and Nevis during the time that the IWC is
meeting in the island nation.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is encouraging
tourists to boycott the Caribbean nations that are
scheming with Japan and Norway to kill whales.
These nations like St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent,
St. Lucia, Grenada, Dominica, and Antigua and Barbuda
are places to be avoided by everyone who cares about
nature and the protection of marine wildlife,
especially the whales. Pilot whales are being killed
in St. Lucia and an annual sacrifice of two Humpbacks
is practiced in St. Vincent. There is nothing saintly
about these islands and they are all under the thumb
of their Japanese masters. Said Captain Watson.
Captain Paul Watson
Founder and President of the Sea Shepherd Conservation
Society (1977-
Co-Founder - The Greenpeace Foundation (1972)
Co-Founder - Greenpeace International (1979)
Director of the Sierra Club USA (2003-2006)
Director - The Farley Mowat Institute
Director - www.harpseals.org
Director - Ocean Outfall Group of California
Advisory Board Member - Telluride Mountain Film
Festival
Advisory Board Member - The Animals Voice Magazine
Whom when I asked from what place he came,
And how he hight, himselfe he did ycleepe,
The Shepheard of the Ocean by Name,
And said he came far from
the main-sea deepe.
- Edmund Spenser
A.C.E. 1590
www.Seashepherd.org
Tel: 360-370-5650
Fax: 360-370-5651
Address: P.O. Box 2616
Friday Harbor, Wa 98250 USA
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